


Reckless, Full of Sunshine

by DontClimbOnThat



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Comedy, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Gen, M/M, Vaguely Ghibli Inspired
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2018-01-01 14:23:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 124,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontClimbOnThat/pseuds/DontClimbOnThat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a city full of nobles, mages, shape-shifters, and ghosts, somehow it's up to the delivery boy to save everything from falling into darkness. But Sora's always considered himself lucky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Mysterious Masked Man

Sprawled out on a grassy hill with warm sun in his face and nothing but open sky above him, Sora was a picture of lazy bliss. The bustle of the city was only a murmur on the wind, as distant and vague as his obligations, and he attempted his best impression of moss in peace. A bee hummed by his nose and landed delicately on a nearby flower, pausing to consider the boy and the flowers crushed beneath him. It darted away an instant later, narrowly missing a furry paw that had appeared out of the grass to swat at it. A yellow cat head appeared next, which scowled as it watched its would-be prey escape. The cat turned to Sora instead, and prodded his side lightly.

"Hey, Sora, shouldn't we be leaving soon?" it asked. The cat received no response. He hopped onto the boy's chest and stared down into his face. "Sora."

Sora gave a deep sigh, which startled the cat on top of him only a little bit.

"We don't have to leave _yet_ ," said Sora, his voice dreamy and content, blue eyes on the sky. The breeze tousled his hair affectionately and encouraged the tall grass to tickle his tan arms and legs, just on the verge of itching.

"Cloud gave you the morning off, not the whole _day_."

"Hm, well," was all Sora had to say to that. He made no motions toward getting up, and the cat settled down into a more comfortable position on top of him, tucking in his feet and tail. Sora's hand came up to scratch the cat's head, which prompted a purr.

"Cloud will be mad if we're late," the cat tried again after a long moment, though he was enjoying the head scratching very much.

"Cloud will be mad either way because he likes to be grumpy. So we might as well take our time, I think."

"We have work to do."

"We?" Sora lifted his head to peer at the cat with a raised eyebrow. "What work do _you_ have to do, Roxas? As I recall, _I'm_ the only one doing the work. All you do is sit around like a lazy bum."

The cat stood with a dignified harrumph and jumped down. Sora gave a good-natured chuckle and finally sat up. "Alright, alright," he conceded, "we'll go back." He stood and stretched with a yawn, then gathered up his bike.

Roxas jumped up into the basket attached to the bike's handle bars and they set off. Once on the thin dirt path, the bike picked up speed as gravity pulled it along until they were absolutely tearing down the hill, avoiding potholes and rocks with a deft lean to one side or another and laughing as only dust was left where he had been a blink ago. They were a blur of red and blue and brown to any bird, squirrel and tree sprite that happened to look their way. Every small rock in the road had Roxas nearly flying out of his seat in the basket, and he dug in his claws and clung for his life, something he had grown very used to by now.

"Sora!" he howled, "You're going too fast! We're going to die!"

Sora only laughed his usual carefree laugh, gave a joyous 'whoop!' and pedaled faster. But Roxas should have expected as much, really.

Quiet grassy hilltops gave way to bustling cobblestone streets and crooked rows of wooden buildings, and at last they had to slow somewhat to avoid a crash. Roxas was able to relax slightly, though his ears were still plastered against his head and his tail fur stuck out as thick as Sora's arm. Sora sped down winding roads and bridges, expertly dodging both stationary and moving obstacles with glee, making wild sharp turns, and accepting the various calls from the people he passed, both friendly greetings and frantic cursing about his recklessness.

He skidded to a halt in front of a familiar building squished between its neighbors. Red-brown walls were criss-crossed by timber framing, and a large, dirty front window proclaimed 'Cloud's Delivery' in faded lettering. Sora rolled his bike down the thin alley next to the building to the garage behind the shop. He unlocked the wooden garage door and set his bike in its designated spot next to Cloud's gleaming motorcycle.

Next to the garage, a rickety staircase zig-zagged up the wall to the balcony landings of the second and third floors of the building, which held Sora and Cloud's apartments, respectively. On the other side of the staircase was a screen door leading into the shop, which Sora made his way through with Roxas trotting at his heels.

"I'm back!" Sora called, letting the screen door snap shut behind him to further announce his arrival.

The back door led immediately into a small kitchenette complete with a sink, table, cupboard, and small ice box. Every flat space was covered in a mess of some kind—papers, cardboard boxes, stray cups, fliers, postcards, rolls upon rolls of packing tape, and odd knickknacks always seemed important enough to keep around, all accented with loose strands of short, coarse yellow cat fur courtesy of Roxas. The walls were bare except for the large calendar full of neat markings in red and black pen that Sora was never allowed to touch, and the clock showing exactly how late Sora was.

Roxas jumped up onto the table and settled himself in one of the empty boxes. Sora headed straight for the ice box and peered inside, hoping that some kind of food had miraculously appeared since the last time he had checked it. He found only the mostly empty jar of milk and wedge of cheese that had been there when he'd left, although the cheese wedge had been partially diminished. Sora stuck his tongue out at the sight and shut the door. Useless.

"You're late."

Sora looked up to find Cloud in the doorway leading to the main office, arms crossed over his chest and regular scowl etched into his face. Though thin and not exactly tall, Cloud struck a rather intimidating figure all the same due to the air of mild fury constantly radiating from him. He looked like a man who could kill you very easily and whose ever-thinning patience was the only thing keeping him from doing so. Cold eyes fixed Sora with a glare like two knives waiting to be thrown.

Sora responded with his best charming smile and rubbed the back of his neck absently.

"Well, at least I'm here, right? So, whatta we got?"

Despite his best efforts, Cloud was never able to intimidate Sora much. He made an expression that could almost be described as an eye-roll, then turned and headed back into the office with Sora bouncing along behind him.

The office was much like the kitchenette in that every surface was covered in clutter and a little bit of cat hair. But the piles were slightly neater, and while seemingly haphazard, there was definite organization to the mess which its owners knew well enough.

Cloud picked up a clipboard from the desk and looked it over.

"Average load today, mostly south." He handed Sora a neat list and indicated the necessary packages among the piles of boxes lining the walls like tired cardboard soldiers awaiting orders.

"Tch, this is it? This won't even take two hours!" Sora pocketed the list and gave Cloud a grin.

"Be that as it may, you'd better get going. The streets will be crowded today because of the parade."

Sora's eyes lit up immediately. "There's a parade? Since when? Like with magicians and elephants and people on stilts? That's so cool! I want to go!"

"No, you're thinking of a circus. It's a military parade. Just a bunch of soldiers marching around." Sora visibly deflated. "There've been fliers out for weeks about the streets in the northern district closing for it, didn't you see them?"

"Oh, those green ones that are everywhere? I never read them because they looked boring. No eye-catching picture or anything."

"We have one on the table in the kitchen, how have you not read it?" Cloud's brow twitched in annoyance.

Sora shrugged. He couldn't help if a flyer looked boring. "Anyway, I'm off."

"Are you going to change your shirt? Or put on the company vest?" Cloud gestured to the bulky tan vest hanging on the coat rack next to the front door. It was constructed out of the stiff, itchy material used for potato sacks, with 'Cloud's Delivery' printed in bold black letters across the back.

Sora made a face at the vest like he'd just eaten a worm. He looked down at his own clothes, a slightly dirty blue-and-white striped t-shirt and brown, knee-length shorts with lots of pockets.

"Nah, this is fine," he concluded. Sora gave a dismissive wave of his hand and started carrying the packages to be loaded onto his bike as if the conversation were over. And Cloud supposed it probably was. His brow settled into a defined furrow as he wondered how exactly he ended up with such an employee.

"There should at least be people on stilts," Sora mumbled to the boxes on his way out back the door. Cloud heard him and shook his head in exasperation.

Outside, Sora strapped the larger boxes to the back of his bike and put the smaller packages in the front basket. Roxas appeared and hopped back into his place in the basket when Sora finished, sitting on top of the packages.

"Cloud said there's going to be a parade!" Sora informed him.

"I know. There've been flyers about it for weeks."

"Yeah yeah, whatever."

Sora rode out of the back alley, and then they were back to racing through the streets. Up and down winding roads, across wide and narrow bridges, through skinny back alleys, past railway tracks, and over hills, Sora flew all across the city.

He was the reason for Cloud's Deliveries reputation as the fastest and most reliable delivery business in town. Anything you needed transported somewhere else, and any time you needed it to be there, Sora was always ready to take it and deliver it on time or earlier. The trickier the timetable, the more complex the route, the better, thought Sora. It was more of a challenge that way and made it more fun. People had grown used to the crazy kid with the little yellow cat and his crazy bike, and while his speed was alarming to pedestrians and automobile drivers, there had yet to be any sort of serious crash because of it.

The first few stops on Sora's list were fairly close, and their deliveries standard. Package given, signature and gratitude received. The next batch required him to cross one of the high bridges over the railway tracks and, from the western district, ride up into the steeper hills of the southern district.

The southern district was rather poorer than the rest of the city, with cramped buildings stacked on top of each other haphazardly in a great pile. Streets were narrow and meandered around as if constructed from a map drawn by a child. It was a lively area, though, and it seemed there were always games or discussions on porch stoops or someone calling to friends passing on the street, or children darting about underfoot involved in their own antics.

Many of the people Sora passed knew him by sight and called out greetings to him, which he returned. The southern district had the best hills, so of course Sora came by as often as he could.

The only issue was the dirt sprites, which grew large in that part of town as they collected dust and grime, and were strong enough to cause more trouble than usual. They gathered in corners and gutters and empty rooms where they went about with their mischief. Lately, they had taken to the steep rooftops where they managed to dislodge and throw the flat clay roof tiles. Pedestrians had to be careful not to get hit by falling roof tiles, and warning notices were displayed every few blocks. Sora had swerved his bike to avoid being hit many a time, and he was certain the dirt sprites had marked him out in particular to hit, being a fast-moving target and therefore a challenge. Roxas told him he was an idiot.

Sora avoided exactly two falling roof tiles with ease as he rode about, and, laughing, told the dirt sprites that they had to try better than _that_. Looking up, Roxas could see their dark shapes scuttling about indignantly.

Their last stop in the area was up a steep flight of stairs, and while carrying his bike up them had been difficult, riding them back down again had been Sora's favorite part. Incidentally, it had been Roxas' least favorite part.

Their next scheduled stop was to Cid's mechanic shop. Cid Highwind's mechanic shop, which didn't exactly have a proper name and which people mostly referred to as 'Cid's' was a sturdy stone building made up mostly of garage. A small square sign hung from a short rod above the door with a picture of a wrench and a gear, and was just about the only official declaration that this building offered some kind of service.

When Sora pulled up, he could hear the clanging of metal on metal and the gruff shouting of a gravelly voice. He parked his bike against the wall and stood in the doorway, took a deep breath and shouted "Hello!" as suddenly as he could. The resulting startled shout and crash of something being dropped was exactly what Sora had been aiming for, and he laughed.

"That damn kid! Always yellin' his goddamned head off! Appearing out of nowhere! Who the hell does he think he is! He's lucky I didn't saw my fuckin' arm off! Well what are you sittin' around on your ass for! Go see what he wants—And get that shit-eatin' grin off your monkey face!"

A moment later a boy not much older than Sora, though quite a bit taller, appeared from within the garage, still grinning. He had tan skin made darker still from smudges of dirt and grease, and shaggy blond hair that had been bleached further by excessive amounts of time spent in the sun. His overalls were permanently dirty and his work boots were tired, but his smile was wide and friendly and crinkled his eyes in a handsome way.

"Heya Sora," he said. "What's new?"

"Not much, Tidus. I've got the boxes you ordered," Sora answered with a smile.

Tidus nodded and the two of them started unhitching the boxes from Sora's bike.

"You got him pretty good, you know," Tidus chuckled. "He had his arms full of all these really long polls, and then you jump out, and I _swear_ he _jumps_ —actually _jumps_ —and throws the polls all over the place. It was hilarious."

The two of them paused in unloading the boxes and laughed at the grumpy mechanic and his unfortunate characteristic of being easily startled.

"Quit yer yappin'! I can hear you, ya know, ya lazy dumbasses!" Cid's cranky shouting carried out of the garage, and while it didn't stop the two from laughing, it did spur them on to carry the packages inside.

The inside of the garage was significantly darker, and it took Sora a moment for his eyes to adjust. When they did, he found Cid near a work table taken up by several large, recently-dropped poles. He was a stocky, muscular man in his middle age with a thick neck and a pinkish sort of face. He wore a shirt that may have once been blue and a pair of pants held up by a complicated utility belt. At his feet lay a large, fierce-looking red dog with a spiked collar.

"Hey Cid!" Sora called cheerily from behind the box in his arms.

"That's _Mr. Highwind_ to you, brat. Just set those down by that table there." They did so and Cid walked over to inspect them. The dog got up and followed him, sniffing the boxes in interest, then sniffing Sora in interest.

"Sign here, please." Sora handed Cid a paper to sign and a pen. Cid scribbled a signature and gave it back, then barked at Tidus to get back to work.

Sora crouched down and scratched the dog's ears enthusiastically. The dog responded with equally enthusiastic tail-wagging and attempted to lick as much of Sora's face as possible.

"Hi Red," Sora cooed at the dog as he rubbed his head and sides. "How are you today? Has it been a tough day? Is everyone yelling and dropping things? It must be hard on your delicate little ears!" The dog gave a loud and frankly ferocious-sounding bark and Sora laughed.

"Stop talking to that dog like he's a baby," Cid snapped as he went back to his work fiddling with the poles. "You keep doing that and he's gonna start thinking he _is_ a baby. Then he'll get soft, and what use is he gonna be at guarding the shop!"

"Aww, but he _is_ soft!" Sora replied, talking to the dog. "So soft and fluffy, aren't you, Red? But you have to guard the shop! And you're very good at it! No one wants to steal anything because they know how strong you are! I know, I know! You are so tough! Everyone is impressed!" The dog continued to cover Sora in slobber, loving the attention.

"Stop that! Red, get over here." Cid slaped the side of his leg.

But Red perked up suddenly and froze, pupils large and eyes focused unwaveringly on the doorway.

"Red, get over here! What's he looking at—aw dammit, now the cat's here."

Sure enough, Roxas was sitting in the doorway, looking inside with equal measures curious and cautious. Red crouched down, waiting to pounce, and gave a low growl.

"What're you always bringing that damned cat around for?" Cid barked. "You know Red gets all worked up. I never seen 'im get so worked up about a cat as he does about that one. He's trained not to, doesn't even chase squirrels, but he's always after that cat!"

Sora stood up and grinned. "It's because Roxas is special," he said, as if it were obvious. He grabbed Red's collar to make sure he didn't bolt off after Roxas.

"Yeah, well _some_ thing's special alright," Cid grumbled to his tools.

"Hey are you guys going to the parade later?" Sora asked.

"Naw," Tidus answered, "the old man won't let me."

"Yer damn right I won't let ya! We got work to do! I'm not letting you laze around just cuz we're all supposed to get excited about the military. Damn foolish waste of an afternoon, if you ask me. Like we're supposed to be excited about war just cuz some idiots march around in uniform."

"You really think there's going to be a war?" Sora asked.

"Ugh, don't get him started! I'll never hear the end of it!" Tidus moaned. But it was too late.

"Do I think there's going to be a war!" Cid spat. "With Alexandria having that blood-thirsty cow of a noble that they do, of _course_ we are. If Sephiroth doesn't get his act together and show some goddamned di _plo_ macy once in a while we'll have no choice! Idiot nobles don't know how to do a damned thing. They just sit around in their fancy houses drinkin' tea all day while hard-workin' folks like myself foot the bill. Hah! If I ever see any of those Jenova boys I swear I'll pop 'em right in the jaw. Maybe they'll be more diplomatic with their jaws wired shut. Hah!" Cid screwed some bolts into place emphatically.

"They drink tea?"

"What? Why is that the one part you listened to? If you're gonna be an idiot, why'd you even ask?"

Sora shrugged. "I dunno, just curious, I guess."

"About the tea?" Tidus asked.

"I wonder what kind they drink."

Tidus paused in thought. "Probably something that goes with biscuits," was his conclusion.

"Biscuits, huh?"

"Rich people eat biscuits, don't they?"

"Well whatever is it, I'm sure it tastes like piss!" Cid barked. "Now get the hell outta here."

"Okay," Sora chirped. "I'll see you later. Bye Tidus!"

"Bye Sora!"

Sora left the garage and hopped back on his bike and Roxas hopped back into the basket.

"So, what'd he say?" Sora asked as they rode off.

"What'd who say?" Roxas shot back, digging his claws into the basket as they turned a corner.

"Red. What'd he say? Did you talk to him?"

Roxas made a frustrated noise. "No! I didn't talk to him! I can't talk to other animals! You always ask and it's always the same answer."

Sora chewed his lip, unsatisfied. "Maybe you aren't trying hard enough."

"That has nothing to do with it! That's not—Watch out for that woman! Jeez, you almost hit her!"

"No I didn't. We weren't even close."

"Yes you were, she was—tch never mind."

"Anyway, maybe you just need to practice talking to other animals more. Then you might get it."

"Talking to you is close enough to talking to an animal."

"Hah! That's good coming from _you_ , Roxas!"

"Yeah well you—There's a _car_ coming! Are you even _looking_ where you're going?"

"So you're not going to try talking to other animals?" Sora asked, disappointed, as he made a sharp swerve. "I wanna know what Red is saying."

"It doesn't work like that, I keep telling you. Besides, he's not even saying anything. Dogs don't form language like people do. You got your greeting barks, you got your warning barks, you got your 'I'm-an-idiot-dog' barks, and that's pretty much it."

"So you _can_ talk to him!"

"Anyone could come to that conclusion about dog barks! I can't talk to him! I wouldn't even want to!"

"Fine, fine. You're such a spoil-sport, you know that?"

"Whatever, you're the one who never listens," Roxas grumbled.

The next stop Sora had to make was close to the city's central train station. The train happened to pull up just as he finished delivering the package, rumbling, screeching, and billowing smoke, and Sora and Roxas were caught up in heavy foot traffic of people departing and boarding the train as they passed. Though Sora tried to weave as carefully as he could through the crowd (not that it seemed that way to Roxas) he found himself swerving and skidding, whisked about by the sea of anxious people.

Just when he thought he was free, he lurched to a halt as a large woman rushed in front of him with rolling luggage and a brood of children holding hands trailing behind her. The abrupt stop nearly threw Roxas out of the basket, and it was only his claws embedded in its fiber that kept him from flying. The woman didn't appear to have noticed that Sora was there at all, or that they had all come quite close to being seriously injured.

"Eeh! That surprised me!" Sora exclaimed as he watched the group force their way through the crowd almost violently toward the train, practically throwing people aside in their haste.

"You'd better take care not to get trampled, kid," a voice chuckled behind him. "Your little kitten could've died."

Sora couldn't help but blink in surprise at the tall, wiry young man suddenly towering over him. His hair was a shocking red mane and beneath each bottle-green eye was a dash of tattoo like a semi-colon. He had a wide, mocking grin and carried a small bag over his shoulder.

"I'll keep that in mind," Sora said, on the brink of outright staring.

"Make sure you do. There are few things more terrifying than a person late for a train, you know. And being trampled to death seems like such a pathetic way to go, don't you think?" The man's grin widened, but it was only a little sinister.

"Definitely," Sora agreed. "It wouldn't be a heroic death at all. Are you alright, Roxas?"

Roxas was huddled in the basket, ears flattened against his head and tail thicker than ever. He gave the stranger a baleful glare.

"Is that his name? Roxas? Can I pet him?" the man asked, reaching a hand toward him. Roxas growled.

"You probably shouldn't," Sora warned. "He doesn't like other people much."

"That's too bad. I'm usually pretty good with animals." He let his hand drop, expression turned to disappointment.

"Nah, don't take it personally. He's just picky when it comes to people he likes. He has to get to know you first."

"Well I'm nothing if not a man who can bounce back from rejection, even from so fair a creature." His crooked grin reappeared, and Sora returned it. Roxas continued to glare.

Then a loud, wailing lump of large bags collapsed in a heap at their feet. They all watched as a figure disentangled itself from the luggage and turned into a young man about the same age as the first, though not nearly as tall, with light-colored hair cut in a curious, modern sort of style.

"Axel! How could you leave me with all the bags!" he moaned at the first man. "They're heavy and this crowd is a nightmare. And most of this is your stuff anyway!"

"Oh? Didn't you say you wanted to carry them all?" the red-headed man blinked, not an ounce apologetic. "I could have sworn you did."

"I said no such thing!" his companion squawked. "Don't turn your laziness into my failure! I'm not here to be the bag-boy, you know, and even Siax said—" His diatribe fell away abruptly, having noticed Sora and the cat. His face flicked to a smile like a light switch. "Hi! I'm Demyx, nice to meet you!" He grabbed Sora's hand and shook it enthusiastically, as if that was what he had come for.

Sora's smile was bemused but entertained. "I'm Sora. And this is Roxas."

"Aw what a cute kitty cat! Look at him in his little basket!"

Roxas was immediately on the defensive again and snarled at Demyx's approaching hand coming in to pet him. Demyx snapped his hand back with a startled yip.

"And I am Axel, at your service" said the first man with a flourished bow.

"Are you two new in town? Looks like you just got off the train."

"Indeed we are," Axel replied in a lofty voice. "Demyx and I are but two humble traveling performers wandering from city to city, seeing the world and providing entertainment where we can. At last we have arrived in this wonderful city-state of Nomura, though I doubt we will stay long. Ours is a rootless nature, you see. We never stay anywhere for long."

"Performers? Really? What do you do?" Sora's eyes brightened with excitement.

"An easier question to answer would be 'what _don't_ we do?'" Demyx declared. "We are well versed in song, dance, story-telling, juggling, and magic. Few can match our talented diversity!"

"Magic? Ohoo that's so cool! I want to see!"

"And so you shall, my friend, and so you shall! A better show you'll be hard-pressed to find!" Axel said with a friendly clap on Sora's shoulder. "We are called the Flurry of Dancing Flames and the Melodious Nocturne!" He gestured dramatically for emphasis. "Make sure to memorize that."

"Eh? How could I memorize that? That name is way too long!"

"What are you talking about?" Demyx balked. "It's a perfect name! It took us a long time to come up with it, you know."

"You definitely need a better one. That one stinks."

Demyx's eyes widened, horrified, and Axel raised his thin eyebrows.

"And what would you suggest?" Demyx asked, quite concerned.

"I dunno. Something catchier. How can you market such a long name for a show? It wouldn't fit on any banners. And traveling shows need to have good banners."

"That's true that's true!" Demyx cried. "How could we not have thought of that! We won't have a good banner! And then no one will come to our shows!"

"Well, anyway," shrugged Sora, "I'd better get going. Work to do. I'll see you around!"

"Wait! What about our name? The Flame of the Dancing Nocturne? The Melodious Flurry of Flame? Dancing Music Fire?"

"They just keep getting worse! I have to go, though. I'm sure you'll think of something. I can't wait to see your show, whatever it's called! It was nice meeting you!"

"I'm sure we'll meet again," Axel said with a salute.

Sora rode off as Demyx stressed through a whole set of possible new names. Narrow green eyes followed Sora's retreating figure until he disappeared through the crowd.

"There was something odd about that kid, don't you think?" Axel asked.

"I've got it! The Water and Fire Musical Variety Show!"

"Tch, whatever you want. Let's just get out of the train station already." He adjusted the small bag over his shoulder and set off through the busy mob of people.

"Hey wait! How did I get stuck with all the bags again! Get back here! These aren't even mine!"

* * *

The only packages left to deliver were in the northern district. In direct contrast to the southern, and different even from the western and eastern districts, the northern district was a refined, rich, and outrageously clean part of the city. Buildings were taller, larger, less cramped, and constructed of more stone and glass than wood, many with neat green lawns and tall fences. Long blocks of proud apartments lined major boulevards, made of practical, even lines, some with more elaborate facades than others, but all with windows and stylish iron balconies aligned. The sidewalks were wider and the streets straighter, with wrought-iron lamp posts twisted into complicated designs.

While the north was nowhere near as hilly as the southern district, it was certainly constructed on an incline, with neighborhoods rising higher in tiers the further north you went. At the top of this large hill, overlooking everything, was the Jenova mansion, the house of the governing nobles of the city. It was an impressive structure, bigger than the whole block of buildings on Sora's street, and could be seen from almost anywhere in the northern district.

Looking up, Sora could see the mansion, but it wasn't his main focus. He dashed about the tidy streets and stately homes, for it seemed rich families ordered things more frequently than anyone else. The streets were fairly crowded, though, obviously getting ready for the parade, but mostly getting in Sora's way. People walked slowly and in large groups and petty officers had started roping off certain sections. Sora wasn't exactly _tired_ , but the incline certainly wasn't easy on a bike, and with the crowds, the going wasn't the fastest. Roxas, at least, was pleased by this.

Eventually, Sora dropped off the last of his packages. Finally able to enjoy the parade, Sora zipped down the hill with a bike free of extra burdens. He could hear cheers and marching tunes played by trumpets and drums already. They reached the main plaza before the procession did, which gave Sora time to lock up his bike and find a good spot. The latter was easier said than done, however, as the sidewalk was quite densely packed with people who all seemed to be unreasonably tall. And since the parade apparently lacked people on stilts, this was a problem.

Sora pushed and squeezed his way through the crowd as best he could while Roxas weaved expertly through people's feet behind him. Eventually, Sora was able to make a spot for himself behind two people in the front of the crowd. One was very tall and the other very fat, but Sora could see the parade through a nook created by their elbows. Roxas settled down on Sora's feet.

The procession finally reached their stretch of the road, with trumpets blaring and drums pounding patriotically. The sound of hundreds of pairs of feet marching in time was steady and firm, accented with the clop of horse hooves scattered throughout. The street became a stream of green and silver uniforms, shouldered bayonets, and ruddy faces trying their best to look forward stoically instead of smiling arrogantly at the people cheering for them.

There was a small cluster of highly-decorated soldiers on horseback riding between a break in the troops, and the crowds cheered wildly as they passed. The man with the most distinguished uniform, quite probably a general of some kind, rode ahead of the others on a fine black horse. Unlike almost every other person involved with the parade, this man did not seem at all happy to be there; A murderous frown darkened his features underneath his uniform cap, intensifying the fierce scar that ran across his face.

The next troops that passed wore uniforms of green and black, clearly identifying them as the renown mage troops. Sora studied them closely, for all things magic were ceaselessly interesting to him. Unlike the combat troops, who all displayed a general uniformity when it came to size and physical build, the mage troops were far more varied. While there were a few with a strong physique, many were tall and thin, others quite small, and some a bit plump. But all had a confident gleam in their eye betraying their unusual and extraordinary abilities. At their head was a well-decorated woman on horseback with short blue hair peeking out from under her cap. She looked bored, though she was trying her best to hide it.

After these troops was apparently the cavalry, and the sound of horse hooves preceded the troops themselves.

There was some shouting somewhere in the crowd behind Sora, as if someone had started a fight. A few people started shoving at each other, which jostled the others around them. Because everyone was so closely packed together, the shoving in one area rippled and increased like a wave to create rough pushing in another, and Sora was squished uncomfortably. A particularly violent thrust propelled Sora forward through the people in from of him, and he found himself quite suddenly sprawled in the street a shockingly far distance from the crowd he had just been part of. He looked up and saw several rows of oncoming cavalry horses moments away from trampling him. The closest horse reared at the sight of Sora, and the person riding gave a startled yelp. Sora scrambled to get out of the way, but the horse's hooves were flying and coming back down fast.

The crowd watching gave a collective gasp.

Strong arms wrapped themselves around Sora's waist and snatched him out of the way. The rearing horse landed on all fours again with a thud, but no bone-crunching accompanied it. Bewildered, Sora found that he was now out of the street and on the curb of the sidewalk. The crowd around him had parted slightly, giving him room, and they all peered down with worried faces.

For a brief, upside down moment where anything was possible, Sora wondered if Roxas had managed to save him somehow. But when he looked up, it was into jade-green eyes in a handsome pale face framed by longish silver hair.

"Are you alright?"

Blinking, Sora saw that the face belonged to a boy a little older than him, wearing a well-tailored white silk shirt and a concerned frown.

Sora thought about it, but it seemed that all his body parts had indeed been rescued, so he nodded.

The crowd watching gave a collective cheer.

The boy stood and offered Sora his hand, which he accepted. Sora brushed himself off and gave the boy tremendous smile.

"Thank you so much. That would have been a terribly un-heroic way to die."

The boy gave him an odd look. "Yes, I suppose it would have been." He paused, looking at the people around him as if suddenly self-conscious, and swallowed uncomfortably. "Well, I'm glad you're unhurt. Goodbye." And with that, the boy turned sharply and left. The crowd parted for him easily, but seemed to close up again when he had passed through.

"Wait!"' Sora called after him. "Who said you could leave!" But the boy had already gone.

A cat's howling alerted Sora to Roxas pawing at his feet. He scooped the cat up into his arms and together they made their way through the crowd and back to his bike, having seen enough of the parade.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Roxas said once they were far enough away from everyone, purring to keep his nerves at bay.

"Yeah me too. It was so exciting!"

"What?" Roxas snapped. "Exciting! You could have been killed!"

"Yeah, but I wasn't! All thanks to that mysterious masked man! I wonder who he was!" Sora was grinning like a fool, stars in his eyes and bounce in his step.

"Sora, he wasn't wearing a mask."

"Yeah, well he should have been. If he's going to run away and be mysterious, he might as well wear a mask. Plus, I've always wanted to say something like 'who was that masked man?' and now I got to."

There was a pause before Roxas responded.

"You might have hit your head harder than I thought. We should go home so you can lie down."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, concerns, corrections, critiques all welcome.


	2. The Shadow Monsters

Though he kept a sharp eye out as he rode about town, Sora neither caught a glimpse nor received any clue about the identity of the mysterious boy who had saved him. And it was killing him. Sora knew almost every part of the city and had probably delivered to or at least ridden past almost every city resident. So why could he not find this boy? How common could silver hair on a young person be, anyway? And yet, nothing.

But Sora was determined to find this boy and make him his friend; Sora was determined to make most people his friend, but this boy in particular had saved him from a pathetic, trampled doom, and he couldn't just let that go unrewarded. Sora's friendship, of course, was a great reward.

About a week and a half after the incident, his search finally yielded results.

The list of stops Sora had to make that day had, for the first time ever in Sora's experience and probably in the delivery company's history, included the Jenova mansion. When Sora received his list that morning and discovered this, he was understandably excited; He had never been there before and wanted to see what the nobles looked like up close.

Cloud hadn't seemed to care one way or another about the matter. He had assured Sora that the delivery was only to one of the maids living there and that it was highly unlikely that he would see the nobles at all. Then he had gotten a strange, panicked look and made Sora promise not to talk to any nobles if, for some reason, he happened to find one. Sora had agreed, though he wasn't sure what Cloud had been so afraid of. In Sora's experience, talking to people was always fun and turned out well.

Soon Sora was on his way further north than he had ever been, up to the top of that high terraced hill overlooking the city. He couldn’t stop his grin as he made his way, huffing though he was at the strain of the incline; There was a certain pride in delivering something to such an illustrious address.

When he arrived, he was met with large iron gates entwined with gold embellishments, where an older man in a stiff suit appeared to question him.

"I've got a delivery for a—" he checked the paper quickly, "for a Miss Kairi. She's here, right?"

The man gave Sora a stern look and paused, probably for dramatic effect, Sora thought, before giving a slight incline of his head and opening the gates for him to pass.

"Take this road around to the back of the house where the servants' quarters are. Someone will find Miss Kairi for you."

"Got it! Thanks old guy!" Sora called with a wave and rode off in the direction the man had indicated.

The wide gravel road Sora pedaled down circled a large garden containing an array of neat bushes and bright flowers arranged in colorful designs around a large pool and elaborate bubbling fountain.

Overlooking the garden, of course, was the Jenova mansion, proud, ornate, and nearly glowing in the midday sun. Tall towers loomed with symmetric bravado to each end of the building, connected by a long mansard roof punctured with sharp gabled windows to a brilliant central tower which was rounded at the top like a giant head. The broad limestone façade was lavishly ornamented with carvings and detail around the many winking windows and the large, columned entryway. The building was nearly as old as the city of Nomura, and had housed the ruling Jenovas since its construction. Perhaps because of this, the mansion itself seemed to radiate honor and demand respect, for all the history it had withstood and the sheer elegance of its architecture, if nothing else.

Sora took a moment to appreciate the grandeur as he rode by, and even Roxas was impressed. But the man at the gate kept a disapproving eye on him so he continued to the servants' quarters like he was supposed to.

When he reached the back of the building, he locked his up bike and wandered up a few steps to a propped open door. Inside, he was met with a bustle of servants scuttling about with baskets and trays and piles of laundry, all talking and shouting with equal parts stress and sass. After a minute or two amidst the flurry of limbs, dish towels, and teasing insults, a maid finally noticed him standing somehow in absolutely everyone’s way and agreed to find Miss Kairi for him.

The maid scurried off into the depths of the house and returned after a while with a skinny girl about Sora's age and height behind her. The girl wore an apron over a pale pink dress and dark stockings, and had a small maid's hat pinned in red-brown hair. Gray eyes regarded him coolly, but she seemed to decide he was worth a grin by the time she approached.

"Hi I'm Sora! Are you Kairi? I have a package for you." He handed her the package he had been holding along with his brightest customer service smile. "And I need you to sign here, please."

Kairi accepted the package in surprise and scribbled a signature while she squinted at the writing on it.

"Who’s it from?” she asked. “I wasn't expecting anything. The return address is smudged, I can't make it out."

Sora shrugged. "I dunno. We got that one shipped to us from out of town. Sometimes mail-carriers going between cities give us their larger packages so they don't have to deliver them. I think that one came from the country-side."

"The country-side! Was it to the south? A little village?"

Sora shrugged again, growing increasingly distracted by the antics of the servants hollering and stumbling around them like water rapids around a rock.

"Then it must be from my grandmother! Oh that's so great! Thank you thank you!" She paused suddenly in her excitement and gave a suspicious look at the commotion around them. "Come on," she said in a low voice which sunk easily in the clamor. "I can't open it here. Let's go outside." Before Sora could say anything, she grabbed his wrist and tugged him out the door.

She found a spot for them on the steps behind the low balustrade wall. Sora and Roxas looked over Kairi's shoulder in interest as she tore open the package.

"Aha! I knew it! She sent them!" Kairi poured out the contents of the package, revealing a whole lap-full of candies wrapped in bright colored foil. "The little village I grew up in specializes in making these chocolates. They’re the best in the world! And I’m not just saying that, either—people get awards and stuff for their chocolate all the time. And my amazing brilliant  _wonderful_  grandma sent me some! I’m surprised they didn’t melt, to be honest. Anyway, I'll share with you since you brought it. Chocolate is for sharing, it's no fun to eat it by yourself. Plus, I've decided I like you, and I'm usually a pretty good judge of character."

"Ohoo! I can really have some?" Sora, asked, eyes shining as he received a handful. "First I get to go to the mansion, then I get to eat the best chocolate in the world! What a fun day!" He popped a chocolate in his mouth and made a delighted noise as it melted on his tongue. He noticed Kairi pulling more items out of the large package. "What else is in there?" he asked.

"Let's see. Two books, a scarf, and a hat. She must have made the scarf and the hat. She's very good at crochet. When I was little, she used to make all these silly dolls for me." Kairi tried on the hat and scarf, both a light purple. "How do I look?" she asked with a flourish.

Sora smiled around a mouthful of chocolate and gave an approving nod.

"And— oh!" she gasped. "How did she get these books?"

Sora swallowed his mouthful and looked over. " _Human Anatomy and Function_ , and  _Matter and Force: Basic Physics_ ," he read aloud. "That sounds boring."

 "It is  _not_  boring, thank you very much!" she huffed. "It is  _science_. And one day, I will be a brilliant scientist! I may be just a lowly housemaid now, but I am saving up to go to the University one day. And when I do, I  _will_ become a scientist!" She lifted her chin proudly while her eyes took on a dreamy glint.

"Oh, really? Well, when you get to the University, there will be a scowly woman who sits at the desk in the dorm building, and she will give you mean looks if your clothes are dirty or if you have a cat. But don't worry, she's not in charge. I asked, and she's definitely not in charge."

"Good to know," Kairi laughed. She looked over at Roxas, who was batting at one of the discarded candy wrappers. "What's your cat's name?"

"This is Roxas. Don't mind if he ignores you, though, he's usually pretty rude about that."

"That's okay, he can do what he likes, I guess. Do you bring him everywhere you go? Like on deliveries and stuff?"

"Yeah, he's mostly always with me. He gets nervous if I'm gone for too long."

Roxas gave him a frown at that. He sauntered a few steps down and sat with his back toward them.

"Aw, look, he's embarrassed," Kairi chuckled.

"He'll get over it. Say, what's it like working at the mansion? Do you live here and everything? Is it exciting? I always thought it would be fun to live in a big house like this. You could run around in all the rooms and climb up high on the roof and see really far."

"Mm, it's alright, I guess. The pay is pretty good and the head housekeeper is nice. Most of the maids are friendly, too. I share a room with two other girls and they're lots of fun. We play games and tell stories and go to town together all the time.” She gave a mischievous smile and leaned close as if with a secret. “And sometimes we run around the rooms when no one is looking," she added.

"I knew it!"

"Some of the other workers are kind of dumb, though. There's this one guy, Hayner—he's the stable hand—and he's always getting on my nerves and pulling pranks on me. Yesterday, he had this wire and he tripped me so I fell in a stack of hay. It got all stuck in my hair and everything. He makes me so mad! And the nobles aren't really very nice. You have to try to stay out of their way."

"How come?"

She paused in thought and put her chin in her palms, knees drawn up to her elbows. "Well, Lord Sephiroth is alright. He mostly just ignores the servants. It's his sons you have to watch out for, Masters Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj. They're worse than Hayner. They pinch you or knock things out of your hands and try to get you in trouble if they're in a bad mood. But I know how to avoid them by now, so it's not too bad. And Master Xehanort is kind of weird, too. He's Master Sephiroth’s adviser and he creeps me out. He's never done anything mean, but he's just... I always get this weird feeling from him."

"What kind of feeling?"

"I don't know,” she sighed and pursed her lips. “I can't explain it. I just get this feeling about people sometimes. Like right now, I get this feeling about you, sort of bright and shiny, and it says you're a good kind of person. That's why I let you have some of my chocolates."

"Yeah? Well that's nice! What does it say about Roxas?"

"Your cat? It doesn't usually tell me anything about animals, but—" She looked at Roxas and gave a thoughtful frown. "He's a bit of a strange cat, isn't he?"

Roxas gave a start and crouched down on the step as if trying to hide from her.

"Hey you've got a fun superpower!" Sora laughed.

Kairi blushed. "It's not really a superpower. I don't know what it is. It's not like usual magic or anything, that much I know. I've tried researching it, but nothing really sounds like what happens to me."

"Mysterious superpowers are even better!" Sora declared. “Maybe you have some awesome new magic that no one’s ever had before.”

“I guess that would mean that I was the most powerful person with my kind of magic, huh? Because no one else but me has it.” She grinned and her gray eyes sparkled.

“You could be, like, the Master Mage of Weird-Feeling-Things. People would go on journeys to seek your advice and training and stuff. You could live in a crazy temple at the top of a steep mountain and have a goat and talk only in riddles.”

“But I would also be the weakest person with my kind of magic, too, since there’s no one who’s worse than me at using my power, either. Who goes on a journey to be trained by the weakest mage?”

“Ah well. Living on a steep mountain would be a hassle anyways—You’d get so tired carrying groceies home to your mountain temple. Your calves would be sore all the time.”

“Plus goats smell bad and they eat everything.”

“Well that’s no good. They’d eat all your chocolate!”

“Alright, it’s settled, I won’t become a Master Mage of Weird-Feeling-Things.”

“Good, I’m glad. Otherwise I would’ve had to go on a bicycle journey to deliver your package.”

“Though your calves would be in good shape after the bicycle journey—Maybe fit enough to carry the groceries up the steep mountain!”

“I guess I would be delivering you your groceries, then, huh?”

“Maybe I should become a Master Mage after all, since I don’t have to carry the groceries.”

“What about the goat?”

“If the goat eats all the groceries, I’ll just order more.”

“You’d be keeping me in business, so I can’t complain.”

They burst into laughter, the kind which slowly quiets into giggles only to erupt with sudden vigor all at once, continuing on until no one can quite remember what was so funny in the first place—which, of course, is funny in itself and tends to start the cycle over again.

The two of them would probably have continued laughing and goofing off the whole afternoon except that approaching footsteps on the gravel made Kairi freeze. From their spot behind the low wall, they were slightly hidden, but Kairi started gathering up her things.

"I'd better go," she whispered. "If that's the housekeeper or one of the butlers, I could get in trouble."

"I'll look and see," Sora whispered back.

He peered over the wall as stealthy as cat with a bell. The person in question was walking along the path not far from where they sat. But it wasn't a housekeeper and it didn't look like a butler, either. It was a young man with shoulder-length silver hair wearing a crisp green shirt and fine black pants tucked into polished boots. It was hard to make out his features from the distance, but he looked familiar.

"Hey, that's the guy who saved me!"

"Sora, be quiet!" Kairi hissed.

"I've been looking everywhere for him! He saved me from a stampede a while ago, but then he ran off. Who is he?"

Kairi joined him at the wall.

"Oh, that's Master Riku," she said quietly as he walked past. "He's Lord Sephiroth's nephew. I don't know him very well, though—no one does. People call him the Ice Prince since he's always so cold to anyone who tries to talk to him. He's a mage, too, the only one in the family, and I've heard his ice spells are really strong—You know, now that I think of it,  _that_  might be where the Ice Prince name comes from. Huh, why did that never occur to me before now?"

"What do your superpowers say about him?"

"That's the thing, I've always gotten a strange feeling from him. Like he's a good kind of person maybe, but then there's something else on top of that, something dark, kind of. I could never figure him out."

"Well, I'm gonna go talk to him," Sora announced, standing up from where he had been crouched at the wall.

"What!" Kairi hissed. "You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because he's a noble. You can't just go up and talk to him out of nowhere!"

"Cloud said the same thing. But I've been looking for him for a while now, and I'm not going to just  _not_  talk to him after I finally found him!" And with that, he hopped out from behind the wall and down the stairs.

"Hey!" Sora called after the boy with a friendly wave. "Hey wait!"

The boy stopped and turned to him, startled by his shouting and sudden appearance.

"Um, can I help you?" he asked as Sora approached.

"Yeah! You're Riku, right?" The boy nodded, somewhat hesitant and highly suspicious. "I'm Sora! You saved me at the parade a few days ago, do you remember?"

"Yes, I remember. What do you want?" Riku frowned. He didn't exactly look happy to see Sora again, but that wasn't the kind of thing to put Sora off.

"I wanted to meet you and say thank you!"

"You already said thank you at the parade."

"Well I wanted to say it again."

"Alright. And now you have, so go away."

"But I didn't say it yet."

"Yes you did. Just now."

"I said that I  _wanted_  to say thank you, but I didn't actually _say_  it yet."

Riku rolled his eyes. "Fine, get on with it, then."

Sora took a great breath and thrust his fists in the air. "THANK YOU!" he shouted as loud as he could.

Riku gave a noticeable start, eyes wide in bewilderment. But after a moment, his frown was back.

"Well, that was certainly...something. I feel very...uh...thanked."

"Good, I'm glad." Sora smiled.

"Well, now that that's done, I'll be going." Riku started to turn away.

"No, wait! I want to be your friend!"

"That's not necessary," Riku scoffed as he leveled his frown at Sora once again.

"Yes it is. We should definitely be friends."

"Too bad, I'm not going to be your friend. Now stop bothering me, I have things to do." He began walking away, but Sora followed him, as persistent as a bee.

"Come on! It'll be fun! We'll have adventures all the time and make jokes and stuff. We can visit each other's houses and take the train and go camping maybe. Or to the beach, whichever you want."

"I don't want to go to the beach," Riku said, voice flat and decidedly _not_ looking at this unwanted company as they walked along the gravel path.

"Why not? The beach is fun. Oh well, we can go camping then. That's fun, too."

"I don't want to do  _either_  of those things."

"Then what do you think we should do?"

" _I'm_  going to go to my room, and  _you're_  going to go away." Riku tried to speed up his pace, but Sora kept even with him.

"Do you like to ride bikes? We could do that. I'm good at riding bikes."

"If I'd known you were this annoying, I wouldn't have saved you."

Sora laughed. "You're funny. I like you."

"Leave me alone. I don't have time for idiots like you."

"Be my friend."

"No."

"You can't say no to friendship."

"Yes I can. I don't want to be your friend."

"It's too late. I've decided. We are friends."

"You can't just go deciding things like that for people. I'm not your friend."

"Would you like a chocolate?"

"Would I—what?" Riku stopped walking and looked at him, more out of confusion than anything.

"A chocolate. Here," Sora handed him one of the brightly-wrapped chocolates he had with him. Riku looked at it in his hand, unsure how it had gotten there or when he had agreed to take it. "I got this from my friend Kairi who I met earlier. She says it's the best in the world. You can ask her if you want. She's right over there." Sora pointed over to the wall where Kairi was peering over watching them. When they looked her way, she disappeared behind it with an 'eep!'

"Well, go on," Sora urged. "Eat it. It's good." He took out another one from his pocket and popped it in his mouth.

Riku unwrapped his chocolate and examined it suspiciously. He nibbled a corner.

"No, not like that. You've got to eat it all at once! Then you'll get the full melt-on-your tongue experience.”

He frowned harder at Sora, but gave sigh and did as instructed. He chewed it slowly.

"Well? Do you like it?" Sora asked, wide-eyed and expectant.

"Yes. It's very tasty, " Riku said, still scowling.

"Of course it is. It wouldn't be the best in the world if it wasn't," Sora smiled at him. "Alright, I've gotta go—more deliveries to make. It was nice meeting you! I'm glad we're friends now!"

"We're not friends!" Riku insisted.

Sora laughed. "You're so funny."

He walked back to the wall where Kairi was peeking over again. Behind him, a very confused Riku was standing with his mouth slightly open as if he were trying to think of something to say but couldn't. Once back at the stairs, Sora gave Kairi a wide smile.

"See? It wasn't bad at all. He's very nice, you should try talking to him more."

Kairi squinted at him and wondered if they had heard the same conversation.

"Anyway, I really have to go."

A bemused grin spread across her face and she nodded goodbye.

Roxas trotted over from where he had been laying in a spot of sunshine. They got back on the bike and Sora gave a wave to both Kairi and Riku (who was still frowning at him) before riding off. Riku turned his glare to Kairi, and she scrambled back inside.

 

* * *

 

The next day found Sora finishing his deliveries in the late afternoon, just as the sun had sunk to an angle that bathed the city in soft orange light. As he rode past a small open square in the eastern district, he heard music, laughter and a few cheers from a small crowd gathered by a fountain. So of course Sora had to stop and see what was happening. Roxas was curious, too.

"Come one! Come all! Gather 'round and witness the most talented, the most amazing, the most spirited show you will ever see! The magic! The music! The mystique! You there! Little girl, won't you please step forward? Come on now, don't be shy!"

The voice sounded familiar, and sure enough, when Sora and Roxas got closer, they recognized the shock of red hair and mischievous crooked smile. Next to him, his blond companion was playing a light, twangy melody on a large stringed instrument that looked a bit like a guitar but which clearly wasn't. They stood in front of the large fountain in the center of the square with a small crescent of crowd gathered in front of them, and together they coaxed a small girl forward. Above them, hanging across two upright polls was a cloth banner with the words 'Fire and Water Magical Music Show' painted in sloppy letters.

"And what's your name, little girl?" Axel asked as he took her hand and led her to the front of the audience.

"Marlene," she answered shyly. She gave a nervous smile to Demyx, who returned it tenfold as he strummed his melody.

"Ah, Marlene, what a beautiful name! Angels sing it from the heavens! Now my dear, what is your favorite color?"

"Aqua-marine," she said with a blush.

"Aqua-marine! What a color! How do you know such a long name for a color? When I was your age, I just called it blue! Gone are the days when children liked simple colors like pink or yellow. Ah, well, I can tell you're a smart girl. Now Marlene, I have a gift for you for being so brave and coming up here in front of everybody."

Her eyes lit up with excitement as Demyx's tune shifted into something soft and slightly mysterious. Axel gave a dramatic twist of his hands and suddenly produced a flutter of butterflies made of sparkling colored fire. Marlene gave a gasp of delight, for the butterflies were unquestionably aqua-marine. They danced about in the air to the tune Demyx played, multiplying and flitting about with small flicks of Axel's hands. One of the butterflies came to land on the girl's open palm and she held it like a candle flame, her face alight with joy. The crowd ooh-ed and aw-ed at the display. After a brief moment on her hand, it took off again, and they all burst into tiny little fireworks in blues and greens. The fireworks did not fade out, however, and instead grew bigger with every flash. Soon the fireworks were large enough to shower the square with blue, green, and gold glitter, and did so until a final blast erupted with a magnificent fiery sparkle. The crowd cheered.

"Thank you, thank you. A round of applause for Marlene, everybody!"

The little girl blushed even more.

"Alright Marlene, you can go back now. But first!" Axel gave another twist of his hand and was suddenly holding a delicate flower with large, blue-green petals. He tucked the flower behind her ear and she giggled a 'thank you' before rejoining the crowd.

"And now! Feast your eyes on the amazing control of the elements! Demyx, if you will!"

Demyx and his instrument stepped into the center of the makeshift stage in front of the fountain.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, my name is Demyx, and I will now perform for you the Dance of the Waterfall."

The audience watched on in rapture as Demyx began to play a slow, silly tune, plucking notes with a twang. Behind him, water in the fountain started to rise in large droplets that hung in mid-air and bobbed to the music. The crowd gasped in surprise. As the rhythm picked up pace, so did the water's dancing, and the droplets began weaving overhead and twirling into different shapes. The song slowly built into a wild, frenzied tune that had the audience swaying and clapping to the beat. The water began crashing back into the pool and emerging again to fly above them with fantastic flurries and dramatic shapes. The song reached a climax and the water combined into a sort of flying river that twisted and rolled about the audience. The water eventually made its way back to the fountain and the song reached its end. The crowd, which had grown bigger during the last performance, erupted in applause and cheers. Demyx took a dramatic bow.

"Thank you, thank you!" Demyx called above the noise. "If you enjoyed our show, won’t you please donate to our wonderful cause so that we may live to perform another day! Place all donations in the hat or the sitar case! We don't ask for much, we only ask what you think this amazing show was worth to you! A guy's gotta eat, you know. Yes, thank you. In the hat and sitar case, thank you very much!"

A considerable number of people stepped forward and dropped coins into the hat and instrument case at the performers' feet. Sora made his way to the front and tossed a coin in as well.

Demyx had started a lazy, lilting melody and Axel was holding several palm-sized balls in his hands. When they caught sight of Sora, Demyx's eyes light up.

"Ah! And now it's time for our renown and very impressive mind-reading act! You there, with the cat on your shoulder, won't you step forward?" Demyx asked, looking at Sora.

"Me? Okay." Sora stepped up to the front and stood next to the two of them. Demyx strummed his sitar wildly but then suddenly stopped with his hands over the strings. He closed his eyes as if in deep concentration and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Ah, I see, I see!" Demyx said with a mysterious kind of voice. "You... Your name... I see it! It's coming to me across the dimensional plane! Your name... is Sora! Is that correct young sir?"

"Yeah, don't you remember? I met you the other day at the train station."

"No, we did  _not_  meet at the train station! But we may have met... through the dimensional plane! Yes yes!"

"Oh, I thought it was the train station."

"Well... it wasn't. It was the dimensional plane." Demyx opened one eye to give Sora a scowl but closed it again quickly.

"And... what's this? It's coming to me! Large wheels, rolling, movement! I see…red! Is it…a bicycle!"

"Yeah I ride my bike a lot."

"And your cat. The dimensional plane tells me he is not a friendly cat! Does he... like to growl at perfectly nice people?"

"Sometimes," Sora agreed.

"Aha! I see! Now, the dimensional plane is calling... it tells me that you are twelve years old!"

"No, I'm sixteen."

"What!" Demyx squawked, opening his eyes and losing his dramatic mind-reader act completely. "You're not sixteen! How can you  _possibly_ be sixteen!"

Sora shrugged. "I dunno, I just am."

"I don't believe you. Thirteen, maybe."

"Nope. Sixteen."

"You  _can't_  be! You don't look sixteen at all!"

"You're not a very good mind-reader are you?" Sora grinned.

" How dare you insult my skills!"

"Alright, alright, everybody give it up for the comedy act Demyx and Sora!" Axel interjected as the crowd started to disperse.

Axel took the five balls in his hands and began juggling. Once in the air, they burst into flame, which somehow didn't burn his hands as he handled them. It was an entrancing sight in the dying light of the late day sun. Demyx switched gears and started a song to accompany the flaming juggling. But while a few more people approached to toss them coins, the audience had mostly left.

"Ah well," Axel said after a minute, "It's getting late anyway. Let's pack up, Dem."

"That was a great show!" Sora chirped. "The fireworks and water thing were super cool! You guys must be real mages, huh?"

Axel gave him a sideways grin as he put the no-longer-burning balls in a bag and started rolling up their banner. "It is entirely possible that we are indeed real live mages."

"Traitor! Why did you mess up my mind-reader act?" Demyx demanded, outraged. "You weren't supposed to remember meeting us, and then you were supposed to be really surprised that I knew all that stuff. It would have been awesome!"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize. It wasn't that long ago, though, so of course I would remember that," Sora shrugged.

"Hm, well you seemed like the kind of person with a bad memory."

"My memory isn't  _that_  bad."

"Yeah apparently not," he grumbled, his shoulders hunched in a sulk over his failed psychic act. But the next instant his face snapped into an eager smile as a different thought entered his head. "Hey did you notice our new name? The 'Fire and Water Magical Music Show'! What do you think of it?"

"Yeah, it's a good name! It's fits nicely on your banner and people can remember it," Sora said, nodding thoughtfully. Demyx's smile seemed in danger of splitting his face open. He had apparently been quite concerned about their show's name after Sora's harsh dismissal of their previous title.

"So Sora, what have you and little Roxas been up to lately?" asked Axel. He held a finger out to the cat sitting on Sora's shoulder invitingly, for he had always found that animals loved him easily and was really quite distressed to find one that didn't. Roxas sniffed the offered finger for a moment, then turned his head away. The rejection hit Axel like cold wind, and he clenched his jaw just slightly.

"Oh, all kinds of things," answered Sora brightly, oblivious to the intense exchange that had just occurred. "The other day I climbed up on my roof, and that was pretty fun. I found all this weird stuff that had gotten stuck up there. And later Roxas caught this giant bug and I put it in a jar. But then I felt bad because maybe it missed being free, so I let it go."

"Sounds like you've been busy, then," Axel grinned. He narrowed his eyes at the cat ignoring him, but decided to let it go. He would just have to face the reality that not all cats in the world loved him. It was a terrible realization.

"How's your show going?" Sora continued. "Do lots of people come to see it?"

"We always draw large crowds, there's no need to worry. Soon, we'll have enough money and supplies to head out again, back to the open road." Axel picked up the hat full of coins and started counting. Demyx had already started gathering up the coins in his sitar case, inspecting them closely and giving each a large grin. "We made a pretty good haul today."

"Where will you go when you leave?"

"Wherever destiny takes us I guess," Axel said with a vague hand gesture.

"That sounds like an adventure!"

"Sure does."

“Adventures are what life is all about,” said Sora very seriously.

“Wise words. You should engrave it on a pillow.” Axel gave him a wry smirk and hoisted a small bag full of supplies and coins over his shoulder. “Anyway, it’s been good chattin’ with ya, kid. See ya around.” He gave a salute and started off.

“Hey wait!” cried Demyx, who was struggling to hold both his instrument case and the large rolled-up banner in addition to his own bag of coins and supplies, all of which were rather large and somewhat heavy. “Why do I have to carry all the stuff again? You said you’d help this time! Axel! I know you can hear me! I mean at least  _wait_  for me!” Stumbling and whining, Demyx hurried through the square after his partner.

Sora laughed as he watched them go, then set out toward home.

The sun had slipped past the horizon and the fading light colored everything gray for the brief moment before night officially set in over the city. The lamp posts hanging over the streets were beginning to alight, and rows of lights glowed from inside cozy houses. A lopsided moon had risen over the clock tower and a few of the brighter stars had begun peeking through the darkening sky. Sora rode along happily through scenic detours as it was such a nice night out. Roxas perked up in the basket, enjoying the night and all its sounds and smells as well.

The peaceful quiet of the evening was shattered suddenly by a scream. The sound echoed through the empty streets. Sora stopped, listening for the source, but all was silent again. The street seemed suddenly darker, as if the lamp posts had dimmed. The bright moon had been blotted out by a strange dark cloud, despite the fact that the sky had been clear a moment ago.

"What was that?" Sora asked after a tense, silent moment.

"Probably just some kids playing around," Roxas said, though his ears were flattened and his fur bristling.

"It didn't sound like kids, it sounded like someone in trouble."

"I'm sure it's nothing. Come on, let's go home. This street is starting to creep me out."

Sora rolled slowly down the street, looking out for some sign of danger or distress.

"Why is this the one time you're not going fast?" Roxas complained. His whiskers twitched nervously.

There was a loud crash and a scream, then the sound of running footsteps.

Sora’s head snapped in the direction of the noise, and Roxas' ears sprang forward. Sora turned and sped off toward it.

"Why do we always go  _to_  the trouble? Why do we never go  _away_  from it?" Roxas wailed.

"Someone needs our help, I can tell," Sora answered. "We can't be cowards and ignore it."

Roxas sunk down in the basket at that and made himself as small as possible.

They’d made quick work of several blocks when a figure burst out of an alley in front of them, running at full speed. What little light there was illuminated silver hair and a familiar face.

"Riku!" Sora shouted, surprised.

Riku skidded to a halt and turned to them. His chest was heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

"You!" he panted. "What are you doing here?"

"I was on my way home, but I heard someone scream and it sounded like they were in trouble. Was it you?"

"I didn't  _scream_ ," Riku scoffed. "I might have  _yelled_  a little—in a manly way, of course—but I didn't  _scream_."

 He cast a worried glance behind him. "Listen, you'd better get going. There are these things coming. I got some distance between us, but they're fast and you don't want them after you, trust me. If you leave now, they might not even notice you. They only really seem to go after me anyway. But you should go. Like, now." He took off running again.

"Wait! There's someone after you? Who?" Sora pedaled his bike so he was riding along-side Riku as he ran.

"Not  _who_.  _What_. They're these strange creatures—I don't know what they are. It's like they're made of shadows or something. But they're after me and they're vicious, so you need to get out of here before you get hurt."

"You said they're fast?"

" _Yes!_ They're  _very fast_! Now  _go_  already!" Riku yelled, exasperated. He ran faster, but Sora’s bicycle kept pace with him.

"Listen, nothing in this city except the train is faster than I am on this bike. If you want to get away from those things, you should get on my bike with me."

Riku turned his head to look at Sora like he was insane. "What! No! You have to leave! These things are monsters of some kind and—"

"Get on my bike."

The seriousness of Sora's voice caught him off guard and made him stop. Sora's eyes seemed to glow dangerously in the low light, all traces of the goofy kid suddenly replaced with fierce, determined resolve, making him seem much older. In that moment, Riku knew he could trust Sora with his life.

But it was a moment too long.

There was a hissing, scraping sound behind them, like hundreds of sharp nails clawing at the walls. They turned on the spot to see dark shapes seeping out of the alley Riku had run out of, rising from the shadows on the ground to form misshapen figures. The shapes were growing, multiplying, forming long arms and legs with ferociously long claws, and hunched, twisted, deformed bodies. In what must have been their faces, two dots of menacing golden eyes glowed lifelessly. As they emerged from the alley, they stopped and sniffed the air. All at once, their heads snapped to fix Sora, Riku, and Roxas with their terrible, empty stares.

"Get on. Sit here on this flat part above the back tire. I put packages there, so it can hold your weight. Put your feet on these bars and hold on to me."

Riku scrambled to do what he was told. He wrapped his arms around Sora's waist, feeling uncomfortable with such an intimate act but knowing that this was no time for social boundaries or personal space.

"You good? Hold on tight."

Sora shot off with a jolt and Riku clung to him tightly as a small cry escaped his lips. They tore down the street with incredibly speed, flying past houses and trees.

Riku chanced a look behind and saw the monsters stampeding after them in a shadowy avalanche. They galloped on feet and knuckles, crawled up the walls, flowed through cracks and crevices, and consumed everything in their path until all was total darkness. They oozed into each other and their surroundings like viscous fluid, a mass of heads and claws and golden eyes, tumbling over each other in high cresting waves of pitch black. They were soundless save for a slight rustling and quiet scraping.

They were close. Very close. They nipped at the back tire only slightly out of reach, snapping their claws and what might have been teeth ferociously. Some flowed quickly and shapelessly through the walls alongside them like fish in a stream. They reached out to swipe at Riku's head, but their long claws could never quite reach.

Sora was flying through the city, up and down streets, through thin alleys and low tunnels, over and under bridges, making pinpoint turns and fantastic leaps over high curbs or steps. Everything around them was a frenzied blur as they passed and wind howled in their ears. Riku clenched his jaw to keep from screaming and Roxas was clinging to the basket with all he had, making a low keening noise that was probably involuntary.

But Sora was a picture of serene determination as his hands gripped the handlebars and his strong legs pumped powerfully. He knew what he was doing. He would not crash and he would outrun those monsters, whatever they were. No matter what.

Soon they left the eastern district with its wide roads and flat terrain behind and were tearing through the southern district's narrow meandering streets and chaotic hills, the shadowy beasts hot at their heels. Turns became sharper and more frequent, born of an intimate knowledge of the winding streets and cramped buildings. Sora didn't seem to slow at all going up the steep hills, but he shot down them fast enough to make their stomachs leap.

Dark claws swatted and scratched at them from all sides, but the bike always managed to swerve out of the way in time, avoiding them by a hair's width. Monsters sprang from the depths of dark alleys to either side or dropped down from ledges overhead, but Sora was too quick to be cornered. On and on they went, with Sora weaving his way expertly and tirelessly through the maze of roads and buildings, and Roxas and Riku fighting the urge to vomit.

"Riku, look behind us and tell me where they are."

He turned to find crooked buildings and dark streets. Empty streets.

"They're—They're gone! I think. There's nothing behind us," Riku said, shocked.

Sora slowed to a stop and turned to look as well. He was met with silence.

"Roxas, do you hear anything?” Sora asked the quivering cat in the basket. Roxas stilled and concentrated with his ears alert, straining to hear any sign of their pursuers for a tense moment. But there was nothing. He looked back up at Sora and gave a small shake of his head. Sora let out a relieved sigh and stretched his arms over his head.

"Aha we did it!" he cried. "We beat them! Of course we did! No one can keep up with me! I am the champion!" He laughed triumphantly with his fists in the air for their victory.

Riku extracted himself from the bicycle and gave a grateful sigh. His knees were only slightly shaky, he was proud to admit.

"Thank you," he breathed, "Thank you so much. There's no way I could have gotten away from them without you."

Sora got off the bike, flicked the kickstand with his foot, and stretched his legs.

"Ah, don't worry about it, it was pretty exciting. Plus, now I've paid you back—You saved me, now I've saved you! I mean, what I saved you from was definitely a lot weirder than what you saved me from, but oh well."

Riku's mouth slipped into a smile without him meaning for it to, and he tried to control it back into a frown unsuccessfully.

"Alright, so what should we do now?" Sora asked. "We've got to get back home without running into those things. I'm probably fine, but what about you? Your house is all the way on the other side of the city."

"Those creatures don't like light, that much I know."

"Light, huh? Well I guess they wouldn't since they're made of shadows. Hey I've got it! The train! The train is lit up inside at night. We're really close to the southern station, it's just around the corner. If we get there, you should be able to ride it all the way home."

"That's...actually a really good idea," Riku said, astonished.

"Of course it is! I always come up with great ideas!"

Roxas rolled his eyes, but no one noticed.

"Alright, just let me stretch out my legs for a sec and we can go."

And that's when a falling roof tile hit Sora hard on the head and knocked him unconscious.


	3. The Ice Prince's Curse

If anyone had asked Riku how he had gotten home that night, he honestly would not have been able to tell them much.

All he knew was that he had somehow carried Sora, Sora's bike, and Sora's cat to the train station, which hadn't been far. Once on the train, he'd found a working call box and made a call to the mansion. There was a car waiting at the northern station when Riku carried Sora, the bike, and the cat off the train. While the driver had raised his eyebrows at his young master's extra baggage, the drive to the mansion had been mercifully silent. Once home, a maid had bustled about settling the unconscious Sora in one of the guest bedrooms and tending to the gash on his head.

If Riku had been forced to recount the story, there would certainly not have been any mention of the panic he’d felt when Sora collapsed, how his mind jumped to all the worst conclusions. He would not have mentioned how the cat had howled frantically and hovered over Sora possessively, or how it had almost scratched Riku's eyes out when he had bent down to hoist Sora's body over his shoulder. He wouldn't have said anything about the relief that had crashed over him in a knee-weakening wave when he finally boarded the train, so full of bright, electric light. Or the fact that he’d refused to look out the dark windows but had instead kept his eyes trained on the glass-encased light bulb hanging from the train car's ceiling until he saw green spots. And he definitely would not have said anything about the fact that he had not let go of Sora, either on the train or in the car, until the boy had been placed in a bed.

None of that would have made it into the story. It had all been a bit of a blur, really.

He sat in a chair that he’d pulled up next to the bed in which Sora lay sleeping, elbows digging into his knees and chin resting on his knuckles. The old, plump maid who had tended to his wounds had concluded that Sora would be fine and told Riku to get some rest, but Riku needed to see for himself whether or not he would really be okay.

Sora lay peacefully under the blankets, breath soft and even and face clear of any sign of trouble or discomfort, with a bandage wrapped neatly around his head. The small lamp on the bedside table cast a warm light over him which seemed to slowly loosen some of the tight knots in Riku's stomach.

The cat was curled on Sora’s chest, one open eye trained warily on Riku. He refused to be unnerved by that, of course. Because Riku did not let cats intimidate him.

At last, he had to admit that there was nothing more he could do for Sora and that he really should go to bed. He stood up from his chair but lingered over the sleeping boy. He moved his hand to brush away one of the wild brown locks that had fallen into Sora's eyes, an impulsive urge he couldn't quell.

But before Riku’s hand could reach his face, the cat sprung up to stand over Sora protectively with a fierce growl. Riku flinched and took a step back. The cat seemed alarmingly larger than it had been before and its canines glinted fearsomely.

But that had to be Riku's imagination. He really did need some sleep.

Riku turned and left the room, pausing for a moment in the doorway to glance back at the sleeping boy and the now definitely normal-sized cat before turning out the light and softly closing the door.

 

* * *

 

Sora awoke to a fluffy bed and a headache.

The bed was comfortable, if unfamiliar, and for the first few minutes after Sora gained consciousness, he simply basked in the sensation of being completely consumed by a soft mattress and a down comforter. His own bed was like sleeping on a wooden board compared to this one.

When he finally sat up, something which took quite a bit more effort than usual with his headache complaining the whole way, he found that not only was the bed ridiculously comfy, it was also ridiculously huge. Pristine white blankets seemed to go on forever and there was an unnecessarily large number of pillows surrounding him. On one of these pillows, curled up in a small furry ball, was Roxas.

The rest of the room was just as extravagant as the bed, with a high ceiling, gleaming hardwood floor, elegant furniture, and large window through which blue sky could be seen. The walls were as white as the bed, embellished with gold trimming where they met the ceiling, and decorated with paintings of fruit in flamboyant golden frames.

All in all, Sora had absolutely no idea where he was. He remembered Riku, and he remembered the monsters, and he remembered getting away from the monsters, and then... his head hurt. He prodded his head gingerly to find linen bandages, and further exploration resulted in the discovery of a painful bump that had him hissing at the contact.

With nothing better to do and still not enough motivation to leave the snug nest of the bed, he pet the sleeping cat beside him. Roxas stirred and opened his eyes a sliver. Sora smiled at him and scratched his chin until he purred.

"Good morning," Roxas mumbled. "Are you feeling okay?"

"My head hurts a little, but I'm fine."

Roxas closed his eyes again and rolled over onto his back, allowing Sora to scratch his soft white belly. They continued like this for a peaceful moment somehow immune to the ongoing movement of time, until Sora remembered that he still didn't know where he was. He figured Roxas might know, though, so he asked him. Roxas usually knew things practical things like that.

"We are in a guest bedroom in the Jenova mansion. Riku brought us here after a dirt sprite hit you with a roof tile and knocked you unconscious."

"A  _what_!" Sora shrieked.

Roxas rolled back over and stood up with a meticulous stretch—first his front legs, then his back legs— and a wide yawn. Once finished, he sat down again on the pillow and curled his tail neatly over his front paws.

"A dirt sprite hit you with a roof tile when we were in the southern district after we lost those monsters," he repeated.

"I can't  _believe_  it!" Sora fumed, his cheeks puffed in outrage. "Those bastards, getting me while I was off my bike! That’s low, even for them. I  _told_  you they had me marked out!  _Didn't_  I tell you? They couldn't get me while I was moving, so they took the coward's way out! Oh I bet whichever one it was that hit me thinks he's  _such_  a big shot now. Ugh I can’t _believe_  it!"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Sora. If they got you, they got you. No one said dirt sprites had rules."

"Yeah, but I thought they had  _pride_!"

There was a light knock on the door before it opened, admitting a maid in an apron and a pale pink dress pushing a cart full of food dishes.

"Good morning, Sir, I have brought you some breakfast," she said with her head bowed politely.

"Kairi!" Sora called, his face erupting into a terrific smile.

Surprised, Kairi looked up from her bow to gape at him.

"Sora! What the heck are  _you_  doing here?"

"I dunno. I just woke up and here I was."

Kairi stared at him with wide eyes, her mouth working unsuccessfully to form a sentence.

"Anyway, is that food for me?" Sora asked, straining his neck to get a better look at the dishes on the cart. His stomach gave an excited rumble as the smell drifted toward him. Roxas was peering over, his small nose twitching with anticipation.

That snapped Kairi out of her confusion enough; The obligation to do her job outweighed the confusion. "Oh! Right."

She rolled the cart over to the bed, set a small tray on Sora's lap, and piled it with food. Plates full of fluffy pastries, steaming eggs, juicy sausages, and fresh fruit stood no chance against Sora's appetite, and he devoured his way through the mounds of food and gulped down glasses of juice in stomach-expanding bliss. Roxas had snatched a few rolls of sausage away before they disappeared, and was guarding his capture as he tore into them like a fresh kill.

Kairi poured some milk into a saucer and placed it in front of Roxas. He gave her a hard look, but decided that there were probably no ulterior motives and lapped it up eagerly, with his small tongue darting out in quick pink flashes.

"So Sora, why exactly are you here? I was told this morning to bring breakfast to a guest of Master Riku's who had been injured somehow. I had no idea it was you, of course. What happened? Tell me  _everything_!"

"Well," Sora began around a mouthful of raspberry tart, "last night I ran into Riku, and he was being chased by these crazy shadow monsters. They were super scary and weird, I don't know what their deal was. But Riku got on my bike with me, and I rode around real fast and managed to shake 'em off our tail since I am the fastest bike-rider in the world. Obviously. But then those cowardly dirt sprites who have a vendetta against me hit me with a roof tile. Then I woke up here, and then you came in, and now I'm eating breakfast and it's delicious." He smiled at her with a face covered in crumbs. 

"Dirt sprites, huh?" Kairi said with a sympathetic grimace as she handed him a napkin. "In the southern district? Yeah, I've heard they can be real trouble down there. How's your head? Mrs. Potts said you didn't need stitches or anything—Oh! She gave me this compress! Here, it should help with the swelling." She dug out a cold cloth bag filled with ice from the cart and set it on Sora's head. He shivered when it touched him, but it was soothing. "How does your head feel?"

"It only hurts a little bit now. This cold thing is helping."

"Good. Mrs. Potts didn't think you had a concussion or anything. But head injuries can be tricky. Especially since you're telling me this bizarre story about monsters chasing you. Maybe I should have her check you after all."

"No no! That part is totally true! You can ask Riku, he was there, he'll tell you. They were these scary shadow monsters, and they were chasing us all around! I don't know why they wanted Riku, but we got away in the end. I don't really care if you believe me or not, but it's true."

Kairi scrunched her face up in uncertainty. "Well it's certainly a  _strange_  story. Shadow monsters?"

"Yeah, they were made out of shadows and had these glow-y eyes and claws." He spoke in a matter-of-fact sort of way, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

"I've never heard of anything like that before. Master Riku didn't say anything about being chased by monsters as far as I know. Not that the Ice Prince really says much to anyone anyway, but still, that sounds like something worth mentioning. And yet..." Kairi paused in thought.

Sora went back to inhaling what remained of the food, which was clearly his priority. Roxas had gotten bolder and was now eating directly off the plates, but Sora didn't seem to mind at all.

"Well, as bizarre as your story is, I don't think you're lying." Kairi tapped her finger on her chin pensively.

"Your superpowers again?"

"Yeah. You're still all bright and shiny. Normally when someone lies, a big lie, I mean, they feel kind of gray and leave a weird aftertaste in my mouth." She cocked her to the side and considered him with eyebrows drawn and lips pressed into a thin line. "Alright," she concluded with the gravity of a court judge passing a sentence. "I've decided that I believe you. If you say you were chased by shadow monsters, then I believe it. Even if it sounds crazy."

"Okay," Sora shrugged, unconcerned.

"Besides, some weird things have been happening around the mansion lately."

That got his attention. "Really? Like what? Mysterious things?" There were few things Sora loved more than a good mystery.

"Kind of. There's this maid who works here. Her name is Namine. And she's always very quiet and polite but... there's just something about her."

"Like the bad feeling you get from that Xehanort guy?"

"Mm, not exactly. With him, there's this dark feeling that sort of sucks away happiness. But with Namine... it feels like she doesn't belong here. I always have a gray feeling about her, like she's lying all the time about something. I know that she's worked here for years, she was here before I started working here. I  _know_  that, I  _remember_  that. Everyone does. But I feel like those memories...there's something wrong about them."

"That sounds even crazier than shadow monsters," Sora chuckled.

"Yeah, I know!" Kairi said with an embarrassed laugh. "That's what everyone says. No one believes me when I say something is weird about Namine. And I only got this feeling about her a few days ago, too, which makes it even weirder for me. I don't know why I never noticed it before, since I've known her for years."

"Mysterious indeed. We should definitely get to the bottom of this!"

"You think so?"

"Yeah, why not? What if she's up to something? It could be fun. We could use science!"

"How would we use science?"

"I don't know. You're the scientist, you think of something."

"I'll do my best!" Kairi pounded her fist into her hand in determination. Sora's enthusiasm was contagious, and she was grateful to have finally found someone who didn't laugh away her concerns about Namine.

There was a knock on the door for the second time that morning, and when it opened, another maid poked her head around the door.

"Excuse me, Sir, I need to speak with Miss Kairi," she said.

"Olette! This is my friend Sora, the one I told you about who brought me the package." Kairi waved her over. "This is my roommate Olette."

Olette brightened and stepped completely into the room. Her green eyes crinkled kindly when she smiled. "Nice to meet you. Say, did you  _really_  force the Ice Prince to be your friend and give him chocolate?"

"Yeah, sure I did."

"I can't believe it!" Olette laughed. "The Ice Prince is always so mean to everyone, I wish I could have been there to see that! Even  _he_  must have a heart in there somewhere."

Sora offered her the last apple on his plate, which she accepted with delight.

"Kairi, I came to tell you that Pence came back from town and brought back a new record for his phonograph. Selphie, Hayner and I were going to listen to it and play card games for a bit since we all have the day off. Do you want to come? This was your only duty today, right?"

Kairi bit her lip in consideration. "Does Hayner  _have_  to be there?"

"I don't know what you're always complaining about. Hayner is really funny."

"Well  _I_  don't think he's particularly funny."

"Aw come on! Is this because he was teasing you the other day? He didn't mean anything by it!"

"He's  _always_  teasing me," Kairi insisted. "It's annoying. I don't care how nice you or Pence keep saying he is, he's always mean to  _me_. I'm not going if he's there."

Olette was crestfallen. "But we never all have the day off together! It's only this once since the Jenovas went to that meeting with those snobs from Alexandria all day. Come on, I'll make him promise to stop bugging you!" Kairi didn't look convinced, though, so Olette turned her strategy to Sora. "Hey! Do you want to come with us? It'll be fun! People Kairi likes are always great, so I'm sure you'll get along with everyone!"

"And the people I  _don't_  like always turn out to be bad," Kairi shot.

"Well you’re wrong just this once! Hayner’s a lot of fun once you get to know him!" Olette insisted.

Kairi made a face at the bedspread and said nothing.

"So, Sora, do you want to come? Pence's phonograph is really cool, he saved up for a while to get it," said Olette.

"Maybe next time. I have to find Riku, and then I should go home. Do you know where he is?"

There was a palpable pause in the room, where both girls forgot about their small argument to share an uncertain expression.

"Yeah, he's probably where he always is, but..." Kairi bit her lip and looked away, thinking about how to word the sentence as if it pained her. "I was instructed to tell you that Master Riku did not wish to speak to you when you woke up. We're supposed to escort you off the premises once you're finished eating." 

"Oh, is he in that meeting you were talking about, too? The one the Jenovas were going to?"

"No, he doesn't go to meetings like that since he's not Sephiroth's son."

"But you know where he is, right?"

"Well, yeah but..."

"I'll just go see him anyway. It's no big deal. Just show me where he is."

"But he deliberately said not to let you see him."

"That's okay, I won’t tell him you told me. But if you don't tell me, that's fine, too. I'll just go look for him myself."

The idea of Sora and his cat wandering the mansion and causing mischief was enough to make up their minds. So after Kairi removed his bandages, she led him to the room where Riku was usually to be found if one were looking for him. She scurried off as Sora opened the door.

The room proved to be a small library of sorts, with walls lined with bookshelves that stretched to the high ceiling. Several plush couches and chairs sat around the room, angled toward the fireplace, which looked large enough for Sora to stand in comfortably. Above the marble mantle was a portrait of a family, a dashing man with dark hair and a fantastic mustache standing behind a lovely woman with long silver hair holding a small baby in her lap, all gazing benevolently over the room. A phonograph sat on a table in one corner, it's polished head splayed like a flower's petals, playing a soft, melancholy piano melody. A chandelier hung from the ceiling but most of the light came from the arched window large enough to take up half of one wall. The window protruded from the room slightly in a rounded curve, making space for the long cushioned bench seat in the alcove beneath it.

Sitting on this bench seat, leaning against the side of the wall with his knees drawn up, was Riku. He was holding a book, though he appeared to have forgotten about it in favor of looking out the window over the sunny courtyard. He looked up as Sora closed the door.

"I thought I told someone to tell you that I was busy." His scowl was firmly in place, but it was ineffective at warding Sora off, much to his consternation.

"This is a pretty nice room. Are all these books yours?" Sora inspected a shelf, eyes roaming over the numerous book spines and titles. There were probably hundreds of books nestled together like close friends, some old and faded and some newer and more polished, but all with fine bindings and not a speck of dust. Roxas jumped up onto one of the shelves, sniffing the books and rubbing his cheek on the ones he found suitable.

"Who else would they belong to?" Riku scoffed.

Sora was by the phonograph now, watching the record spin to produce the somber music. The song ended, but another one began just as gloomy as the first. Sora stuck his hand in the mouth of the phonograph experimentally.

"Don't touch that!"

Sora looked up innocently but moved away.

"Go away, I don't want to talk to you," Riku tried again. But again, Sora ignored him.

"Why were those shadow monsters chasing you?" Sora asked, absorbed now with a small bronze bust of a ugly man sitting on the mantle.

Instead of answering, Riku scowled at his book, mouth clamped shut stubbornly. The silence stretched, and Riku made the mistake of glancing over at Sora, only to find calm blue eyes watching him with a patient gaze, waiting for his answer.

And then something inside Riku softened just a little. 

"I... I'm not really sure why they were chasing me," he admitted. "They just appear out of the darkness and come after me. And when they catch me, I can't remember anything else. I wake up the next morning feeling...strange. Like something's missing—but I can never quite figure out what. Last night was the first time I've ever gotten away from them."

"So you don't know why they come after you? How come you haven't told anyone about it?"

The line of Riku's mouth twisted unhappily. "I just...I didn't want to get my uncle involved. There's nothing anyone can do about it, anyway. It's because of my curse. Anyone who got involved would just get hurt."

Sora's eyes lit up. "A  _curse_! What kind of curse?"

Riku threw a sharp glare. "It's none of your business, just go away already. I'm grateful you saved me from the monsters, but it's time for you to leave now." He made a point of turning back to his book to dismiss his unwanted guest.

"Nope. I'm staying until I hear about the curse!" Sora sat in a chair facing the Riku with the air of someone settling down for a long time. Roxas jumped into his lap and curled up and the two of them watched Riku expectantly. 

Riku closed his eyes, ground his teeth in frustration, and said nothing, refusing to look at them. But his resolve did not last long.

"Fine!" he grit out unwillingly. "I'll tell you. Then you  _have_  to leave, okay?"

Sora nodded eagerly. Riku gave a defeated sigh. 

"When I was little, an old wizard who held a grudge against my father put a curse on me so that whoever I care about, or whoever cares about me would always get hurt. There. Are you happy now?" Riku scowled accusingly.

Sora shrugged. "I guess," he said, unsure. There was a tense pause as the two boys looked at each other. 

"So...is that it?" Sora asked.

"What do you mean _is that it?_  " Riku snapped. "Is that not enough for you?"

Sora shrugged again. "I dunno. I guess I just thought there would be more to it than that."

"More— more _to_ it!" Riku fumed, eyes flashing. "Listen, you," he growled. "This is curse is serious! And _very_ dangerous!" 

"Okay," said Sora. A little too casually for Riku.

"Several people have already died from this curse, alright? And I'm not trying to increase that number any time soon— Though to be honest, you are making it _very tempting_!"

"Who died?"

Riku pressed his lips into a thin line and turned away to give his book a fierce glare. A heavy silence filled the room. Sora shifted in his seat, but did not leave. After a moment, Riku's glare wavered into something more somber.

"My parents," he said quietly. "They died first. It was a...pretty bad automobile accident. My aunt died not too long after I came to live here. She got sick suddenly and the doctors couldn't really explain it. And after that, a friend I had died from an injury." 

"What makes you think all that was the curse?" asked Sora.

"I just know, okay? I...I was there for all of it. I was in the automobile with my parents, I spent a lot of time with my aunt, I was there when my fiend got injured. I just know. These shadow monsters are probably just some new aspect of the curse. It doesn't matter. It's useless to try to go against it." 

Riku balled his hands into tight fists as he glared at the floor. "So that's why I can't be your friend. People can call me the Ice Prince and make fun of me for being cold all they want. I don't care. Anyone who cares about me gets hurt. Even you. You got hurt because of me—because you saved me."

"I got hurt because those stupid dirt sprites are jealous of my talented bike riding. They've been trying to hit me for a while now, but they've always missed. So they discarded their dirt sprite pride and hit me while I was standing instead."

"You wouldn't have been standing there if it weren't for me."

Sora shrugged. "I guess not. But you can't go blaming yourself for every small thing. That was just a coincidence."

"No," Riku snapped furiously. "It was the curse. You don't know anything about it, so don't act like you do. I've told you what you wanted to know, now leave. If you don't, I'll get someone to kick you out."

Sora considered the angry boy in front of him, the way his glare now contained more venom than it had just a moment ago and the pain only thinly veiled in the lines of his face. He picked Roxas up off his lap and stood from the chair.

"Alright. I'll go," he said simply. "But I won’t stop being your friend. You don't scare me." Then his face broke into his usual charming smile. "I'll find a way to break your curse, I promise. Then you won’t have to be so sad anymore."

He turned and left the room, leaving an infuriated Riku behind him.

* * *

 

When Sora arrived back at the shop that afternoon, Cloud launched into an obviously rehearsed speech about the importance of informing others of his whereabouts. Cloud always tried his best to come off as gruff and uncaring, and constantly told Sora that he was not responsible for him and didn't care what he did, but secretly (though a very poorly-kept secret) Cloud sometimes felt that Sora was the little brother he never had. And so, when Sora failed to return from his deliveries the night before, he had been stricken with worry.

The speech was cut short, however, when Sora explained what had happened. He told him about Riku and the monsters chasing them, and about getting hit by a roof tile from the dirt sprites, much in the way he'd explained it to Kairi that morning. In terms of Sora’s stories, this was one of the more outlandish, and Cloud was at a loss for how to react. So he decided, as with all of the strange things Sora told him, to simply let it pass with a dubious frown.

Sora skipped off upstairs to wash up and change his clothes before he got to work. When he finished the day’s deliveries and returned to the shop in the late afternoon, he found Tifa chatting amicably with Cloud in the office.

Tifa owned and operated the bar down the street and had been Cloud's close friend since childhood. She was a pretty, buxom woman with long dark hair and dark, almond-shaped eyes, as quick to make a joke as she was to punch somebody, and fond of teasing the ever-grumpy Cloud. When Sora walked in, she was leaning against the desk with her arms crossed over her chest and her head thrown back in laughter, and Cloud, sitting at the desk, was smiling one of his rare smiles.

When Tifa noticed Sora, she grinned at him.

"I heard you had quite an adventure last night."

"Sure did!"

"Well you had Cloud more worried than I've ever seen him. He called the bar every hour just to ask if you'd been by."

"I did not!" Cloud protested. "I only called once!"

"Please, you big softie, don't bother trying to cover it up! We all know you're secretly a mother hen."

Cloud grumbled something under his breath that they couldn't quite hear, and Tifa only laughed louder.

"So Sora," she started again once she had regained herself, "if you aren't busy disappearing off into the night, how about you come to the bar for dinner tonight? I've convinced Cloud somehow, and Aerith and Zack are coming, too. So, whatta ya say? I know Yuffie's been missing you lately."

"Yeah totally! Can I have your sweet potato fries?"

"I'll make a whole batch just for you! Be there at six."

Six o'clock rolled around and Sora and Cloud arrived at Tifa's bar, a gray building with the name 'Seventh Heaven' displayed proudly above the door. It was nicer than it seemed from the outside, with tables scattered about, booths up against the walls, and a large bar toward the back. There was low lighting, but enough to see that the bar wasn’t busy on this weekday evening.

Noticing their arrival, a girl with short black hair and large dark eyes wearing a waitress's apron bounded toward them.

"Sora! Cloudy! You're here!" she cheered, tackling them both with hugs.

"Hi Yuffie!" Sora easily matched the girl's enthusiasm. "Long time no see!"

"It has been  _way_  too long! You need to visit more! Otherwise, who will eat all of our food? No one! Then we'll have to give it to paying customers! And that would be such a waste. Where's Roxas?"

"He's staying home. He was tired and thought going to a dinner would be too loud for him."

"Oh no! His poor kitty ears! Well that's fine, the party must go on! Come on, we're eating in the back room." They followed her behind the bar to the dining room usually reserved for private parties, where they found the rest of their party.

Zack and Aerith stood to greet them when they entered, as excited as if they hadn’t seen each other in years, though it had only been a few weeks since they’d last gotten together like this.

Aerith, the owner of the flower shop across the street from Cloud's Delivery, had long hair tied back in a braid. Her eyes were kind and her smile warm. Beside her sat her husband, Zack, whose shaggy black hair framed his energetic grin. Zack had been an army officer before retiring due to a severe leg wound that still caused him trouble, but he was still built as if he fought for a living, with an impressive muscular physique rivaled only by Cloud's. These days, he worked with Aerith in her flower shop, and by all appearances, seemed to enjoy it much more than his military life.

Tifa brought out the food from the kitchen, and soon they were all gathered and eating away happily. Zack launched into a story about how a customer at the flower shop had tried to return a bouquet of flowers because the girl he had tried giving them to had rejected him, and had then proceeded to break down in tears in the middle of the store while Aerith and Zack tried to comfort him. Yuffie responded with a story about how Tifa had thrown a guy out of the bar for grabbing her ass.

"The look on his face when she started kicking his ass!" she cackled. "And after she threw him out—literally  _threw_  him, this big guy—all his greasy friends ran away, leaving super big tips because they were so afraid!" They all laughed while Tifa huffed, nose in the air.

"Well they got what they deserved. If they think they can treat me like that just because I'm serving them alcohol, then they've got another thing coming." Everyone agreed heartily, cursing rude men with roaming hands.

"Speaking of alcohol, pour me another one! This glass is too empty!" Zack called merrily.

"Don't be so pessimistic, you could say that the glass is partly full," Aerith teased.

"Well either way, there's more room for beer!" Tifa poured more refills all around.

They continued laughing, eating, drinking, and telling more stories. They were curious to hear Sora's odd tale about the shadow monsters and his new friend's curse, and everyone spent a while thinking up wild ways to break such a curse, mostly for the joy of solving hypothetical problems since no one could ever really tell how serious Sora’s stories were. The consensus was that the only person who would know anything about breaking curses would be a mage, because you would need magic for a thing like that.

Eventually, the topic turned to teasing Cloud, as it often did in such situations. It began, of course, with Zack asking obnoxiously about Cloud’s love life—or rather, the lack thereof.

"C'mon, a stud like you shouldn't be single for so long!” Tifa joined. “You need to get yourself some steady lovin', then we can see that smile more often, instead of just when we get you drunk."

"I'm not drunk," Cloud protested.

"Well then we need to fix that, don't we? Drink up! And have some more of that pasta, I worked hard on that sauce, and Sora's already inhaled half of it."

“I think the problem is that you’ve become too settled in your bachelor ways,” said Aerith importantly, though her words were slightly slurred. “You need to open yourself up to people, you know. Let them in.”

“When was the last time you went on a date, anyway?” asked Yuffie.

Cloud muttered something into his beer glass, face now the color of a tomato.

"Tifa, you've known Cloud the longest, have you ever seen him with anyone?"

"Let's see, let's see," she said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Ah, yes! Of course, how could I possibly forget!" Her face brightened maliciously and Cloud only sunk further into his chair.

"Oh come on,” he moaned. “This is really not important, I think we should talk about something else now."

"Nope, there's no getting out of this one!" Yuffie laughed. "Tell us everything, Tifa! All the juicy details!"

"Well!" she began. "This was a long time ago—years ago—before the delivery shop, when Cloud here was still a mercenary for hire—"

"What!" Yuffie and Sora shrieked in shock. "When the heck were you a mercenary!"

"Years ago, like I just said. Come on, you guys really didn't know that?" Yuffie and Sora shook their heads, eyes wide as they considered Cloud in a new light.

"Aerith and I knew," Zack laughed. "Cloud, the great assassin for hire!"

"Well I guess that explains a lot," Yuffie mused. "No normal business man is quite as scary looking as you are."

"It also explains why he has all those swords in his room,” Sora added with a nod. “I always thought it was a strange decoration choice."

"It’s true, I was a mercenary," Cloud admitted, hoping that maybe this new information would instill some respect into his willful employee. "Sometimes nobles in other cities would hire me to take out enemies and sometimes corporations and businesses would pay me to clean up their messes."

"Yeah yeah," Tifa broke in. "You were very scary and had lots of weapons, la de da.  _Anyway_ , back to the story. So at some point during his fearsome career as a killing machine, Cloud managed to fall  _madly in love_  with this army lieutenant."

"I was  _not_  madly in love with him, don't be ridiculous."

"No,  _you_  don't be ridiculous! I remember when you were with him, and  _that_ , my friend, was madly in love!"

"So what happened?" Aerith asked.

"Well, it was a forbidden love, of course. Because being a mercenary is technically illegal, even though governments hired him. Any work he did for nobles was always hushed up, and no one would ever admit to hiring an assassin. It would be a terrible scandal—Nobles have lost power over things like that, you know.

“So he and this army lieutenant had a secret affair. It went on for years, on again, off again, yadda yadda. Because the lieutenant didn't like that Cloud was a mercenary and he didn't like having a secret affair or doing anything illegal. But Cloud refused to quit. I mean, that was his life, you know? It's not easy to just quit something like that. And the lieutenant refused to quit being in the army, too. And eventually, even though he was madly in love with Cloud, the lieutenant broke it off, because they both chose their career over love!"

Yuffie and Sora gasped, enthralled with the tale.

"Oh how tragic! A classic romantic tragedy! Oh Cloud, I had no idea!" Aerith cried.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter, it was years ago," Cloud muttered gloomily.

"What was his name?" Sora asked.

"Oh gosh, what was it..." Tifa mused. "Oh yes! His name was Squall. Squall something. I only met him a few times, but I remember he was really just—he was  _dashing_."

"Dashing?"

"Yes, that's the only word for him. He was this handsome, dashing, rugged man."

"I can think of a few different words for him," Cloud grumbled darkly as he took a deep gulp of his drink.

"Squall, huh? Hey y'know, there's a Squall in the Jenova army. General Squall Leonhart. He was promoted from lieutenant right before I retired. That can't be the guy, could it?" Zack asked.

"Oh my god that's him!" Tifa gasped. "Squall Leonhart! He's in this city? How could I have not known? Well, it was so long ago, and Cloud and I have both moved around a lot since then. Cloud! Did you know he was in Nomura?"

"Yeah, I knew. How could I possibly forget?" Cloud said through clenched teeth. "This was the city he chose over me. But who cares? It's a big city, it's not like I ever run into him. I moved to Nomura because there were job opportunities. He could go fuck himself for all I care."

Zack gave a loud, barking laugh. "Wow, Cloud, tell us how you  _really_  feel!"

"Alright!" Aerith cheered, more than a little tipsy. "Let's have a toast to Cloud and his classically tragic love story! May he get a date soon!"

Everyone raised their glasses with a resounding "May he get a date soon!" and took a gulp of their drink. Cloud mumbled something that might have been "I've been with other people since then..." but no one was paying attention.

As the night progressed and more beer was consumed, the group started discussing politics, loudly and drunkenly arguing about whether or not they were going to war, and whose fault it was if they did.

"My argument is this!" Zack said, leaning heavily into Aerith's side and waving his glass around for emphasis. "We might not even have a choice about it, you know? Sephiroth could be a saint and it still wouldn't stop Brahne from invading. She wants land and she wants money, and Nomura's got it. So we should just prepare and protect ourselves, right?"

"Not at all!" cried Tifa. "Sephiroth and those little shit sons of his are totally egging her on. They  _want_  her to invade." There was some outburst of argument against this, but she continued on. "No, listen! They went to Alexandria about a week ago, and the youngest son— Kadaj, I think his name is—what does he do when he meets Brahne's daughter? He spits at her feet! Literally  _spits_  at her  _feet_. Well, maybe not right  _at_  her feet, I heard it was kind of to the side—"

"I heard he just coughed, but everyone got all upset because it sounded like he said something insulting when he coughed."

"Well either way, totally asking for trouble!"

"No no no, if anyone is egging anyone on, it's Brahne," Cloud insisted. "I mean, have you heard about the tariffs she put up against Nomura? Like she's trying to dry up our economy. It costs a fortune trying to ship something to or from Alexandria now."

"Plus," Yuffie added, "I heard that she's started drafting mages into the army."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, every mage in any territory even remotely under Alexandria's control has to join the army. No exceptions. If that's not getting ready for an invasion, I don't know what is."

"Well it's not like Sephiroth’s trying to stop her. They had that meeting today about tariffs, but I heard that they couldn't agree on anything. Small things like that! Sephiroth is being just as unreasonable as Brahne!"

"I just wish they could work something out," Aerith sighed. "War would be terrible. So many people would get hurt, and nothing would even get accomplished."

"Aw, my sweet little pacifist wife!" Zack cooed, placing a sloppy kiss on her cheek. The argument quickly dissolved into meaningless, drunken babble, which then dissolved further into laughter as they realized how ridiculous they were all being. Dessert was served, a delicious chocolate cake brought by Aerith, and soon everyone was heading home after a night well-spent, heads spinning and smiles wide.

* * *

 

Sora was quieter than usual the next day, prompting Roxas to ask him if something was the matter.

"Are you hungover, or is something actually on your mind?"

"I don't know what to do about Riku's curse," Sora answered with an unhappy slump of his shoulders.

"You mean you're serious about trying to break the curse? I thought you were just saying that."

"Of course I'm serious! You shouldn't joke about breaking curses."

"No, of course not. Forgive me for forgetting that common courtesy," Roxas said dryly.

"If only we knew a mage. Last night Zack and Aerith said that a mage might know what to do."

"What about those idiot street performers? They're mages, aren't they?"

Sora lit up. "Of course! Why didn't I think of them? Let's go find them!"

"How about after lunch?"

"Oh, right, that's important, too."

So after lunch, Sora and Roxas set out in search of the Fire and Water Magical Music Show. They found Axel eventually, walking down a street, buttoned up in his long black coat. Sora waved him down, and Axel gave him his crooked grin.

"Why if it isn't the boy wonder and his little fuzzball. Funny how I keep running into you."

"I was looking all over for you!"

"Oh really?" he asked, thin eyebrows raised. "I'm so flattered. And what exactly can I help you with that would have you searching for me so desperately?"

"I have a question—actually it's more of an issue that I need help with—and I need a mage's help."

"An issue, huh? Sounds time consuming. I'm not sure if I'm the most helpful guy around."

"Please please  _please_? I promise it won’t be time consuming! As un-time-consuming as possible! Where's Demyx?"

"Demyx is busy meeting an old friend of his. I don't expect to hear from him for the rest of the day. So what's this un-time-consuming issue/question of yours?"

"It's just that this friend of mine is under a curse and I want to help him. So I was wondering if you might know anything about how to break a curse."

Axel's eyebrows leapt even higher. "A cruse? Who on earth would  _you_  know that's under a curse?" Axel sighed and shook his head. "Curses are tricky things, not easily dealt with. This is probably the most time consuming thing you could have asked me."

"Can you tell me  _anything_? Anything at all would help!"

Axel made a reluctant expression, which melted slightly at the puppy dog eyes Sora was giving him. He noticed the cat seemed to be giving him the same look, and there was no resisting both those pairs of eyes at once.

"Alright alright. I'll see what I can do. I'm not promising anything, but I'll hear you out. Now, what kind of curse is it?"

Sora's smile was brilliant and blinding. "It's my friend Riku. He says that when he was little, this old guy cursed him so that anyone he cares about or who cares about him gets hurt or dies."

"Sounds like a pretty terrible curse to have."

"So do you know anything? Anything at all!”

"Hm... A curse making anyone who you care about get hurt or die...Tricky tricky. That's gotta be some spell, I'm not sure I've ever heard of one like that. Most curses I know involve turning someone into something, but to be able to hurt  _other_  people just because they care about you...They've messed with the heart somehow, and the heart is not something that should be tampered with. A powerful yet fragile organ. Very complex. Very complex indeed."

"So? Can you help? Pleeeeeease?" The puppy dog face was back.

"Well aside from your friend going off and becoming a hermit, the only way to break a thing like that would probably need a special kind of heart-mending magic. But I'm sorry to tell you, kid, that's not my specialty."

Sora's expression was more crestfallen and heartbreaking than Axel had feared.

"What do you mean it's not your specialty?"

"Well, I don't know how much you know about magic, but every mage has a specialty. We learn all the basics—matter swapping, property changing, space manipulation, things like that. But every mage has one particular specialty that they’re strongest at. Something that calls to them, makes their spirit sing, you know? For me, it happens to be fire spells."

"You mean like those fireworks you did at your show?"

"Exactly. My soul burns like a flame, passionate and wild, and my magic reflects that. Demyx's specialty is water, obviously. Mages can have all sorts of different strengths. I know a woman whose specialty is lightening and electricity, and I've known others who could shape-shift into some kind of animal. One of my instructors could turn into a bull. Boy was  _that_  guy hard-headed. And Demyx has a friend who can make you see things that aren't really there. Things like that, you know? And I'm sure there's someone who specializes in heart magic like you need, but it ain't me. Heart magic is a pretty rare thing."

Sora slumped and gave the ground a mournful look, a look of hopes and dreams destroyed. It might have been Axel's imagination, but it seemed as if the sun chose that moment to hide behind a cloud and the air took on a cold chill. And even though Axel was usually very good at ignoring these kinds of sympathy-inducing expressions on people, something in Axel's chest would not allow him to leave the poor boy that way.

"Okay okay, stop looking like that. You're going to make the ground open up and swallow me! Listen, I might not be able to help you, but I have heard of someone who is very experienced with curses."

"Really?" The hope was slowly leaking into his eyes again. The sun was emerging from behind its cloud.

"Yeah. There's this man who lives on the outskirts of the city, and he's famous for having some terrible curse. Mages everywhere have heard of him. He's done all kinds of research about curses, obsesses over them, everyone says, so I'm thinking that maybe he can help you. Maybe he'll know something from his research that can break your friend's curse."

"You think so? Could you take me to him?" His smile was back completely, the sun was shining and the air was warm. Hope and joy existed in the world once again.

"Sure, I could take you to him, no problem."

"What's his name?"

"They call him the Nothing Man."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I was listening to a lot of Erik Satie when I wrote Riku's part, so I decided that's what he would be listening to on his phonograph. Because melancholy rich boys with a Tragic Past just love the Gymnopédies.


	4. The Nothing Man

"Nothing Man? What kind of name is that? That's dumb," Sora scoffed.

Axel shrugged. "Dumb it may be, but that's his name. Well, it's what he goes by at least. No one knows what his real name is or where he comes from—Or maybe they do, actually, but I certainly don't.

“Anyway, the point is he's been researching curses for ages, trying to break whatever awful thing he's stuck with. All in vain, of course, but at least it helps other people, I guess. He's written all kinds of books about curses—causes, symptoms, cures, instructions, all of it. Prolific writer. There are whole classes dedicated to him in mage academies.

“But he's a mysterious man. Keeps to himself. Crazy old hermit type. He moves around a lot, takes up residence near big cities like this for a couple years, then moves on. I'm not surprised you've never heard of him. I heard he moved here only recently." Axel used his hands as he spoke, like emphatic punctuation, or perhaps like shadow puppets, fluttering and waving and forming odd shapes to match his words, turning anything he said into a small performance.

"I see," Sora said with a thoughtful nod. "Well, Cloud was too hungover to give me any work today, so I guess this is as good a time as any. Can you take me to this Nothing guy now? Is he far?"

Axel looked at Sora, all big blue eyes and wide smile, practically bouncing with excitement, and at the cat, who was giving him a piercing stare, as if daring him to refuse. Axel was helpless to do anything but agree.

"We might as well," he sighed. "He lives in the woods just beyond the city. I'll take you there, but that's it. I'm not following you inside and waiting for you to finish your business. I have other things to do, you know. I can't be spending all day helping you solve all your little problems."

"That's all I need."

"Good. And I'd appreciate it if we just kept this little favor between us, okay? I don't need word getting out that I've got some kind of bleeding heart. I'd never hear the end of it. People would start petitioning for my help with their petty problems right and left. My reputation would be ruined!"

"My lips are sealed!" Sora made an exaggerated mime of zipping up his lips, locking them, and tossing the imaginary key.

"Alright, alright. Let's get our little field trip started already. This way." Axel sauntered off with a flippant toss of his hand. Sora followed along behind him while towing his bike, with Roxas riding in the basket.

They headed east through the city, toward the woods just beyond Nomura's edge. Axel's walking pace was quite fast, as his legs were almost as long as Sora was tall, and Sora had to practically jog every now and then when he found himself falling behind.

"So I figure I should warn you a bit before we get there," Axel was saying as they walked, gesturing wildly. "The Nothing Man is...ah, well let's just say he's a pretty strange guy. And not the good kind of strange, either. That curse I was telling you about, he's been under it for decades, and apparently it's terrible. And not, like, wet shoes terrible, either. Tongue bleeding and toes-falling-off kind of terrible. Some people say the curse drove him mad. Of course it did. I mean, he's been obsessing over it for who knows how long and getting nowhere. Anyone would go crazy, really. I go crazy when I get a rock in my shoe that doesn't ever come out—you know what I mean? Even after I've taken my shoe off and turned it upside down and shaken it like crazy, I put the shoe back on and that fucker is _still there_. That drives me _nuts_! So I can't imagine what the Nothing Man has to go through.

“Thing is, he's dangerous, too. And dangerous crazy is not good. There’ve been people who’ve gone to see him who are never heard from again. And those who _are_ heard from again have pretty messed up stories to tell. Horrible stories. Disgusting stories. Stories that make you afraid of the dark, stories used to scare children and make them behave. And that's why I'm warning you before we get there, in case you want to change your mind about all this. I wouldn't blame you at all." Axel paused to look at Sora, hesitating in a dramatic way. If Axel knew anything, it was when he had an audience, and Sora was the definition of captivated. Even the cat was watching him intensely.

"What are the stories? Tell me tell me!" Sora implored eagerly, buzzing with excitement as he hopped along beside Axel.

"You sure you can handle it? I don't want to make you sick or anything."

"I can handle it! I swear!"

"Alright, I'll tell you." Axel leaned in close as if sharing a great and dreadful secret, eyes shining and mouth twisted into a wicked smile. Sora and Roxas leaned in as well, unable to resist such a dramatic set up.

"They say the Nothing Man eats people's hearts in order to stay alive."

"He eats their _hearts_?" Sora repeated in grotesque wonder, eyes so large that the white was visible all the way around his irises. Roxas mirrored his expression as well as a cat's face could.

“He _rips_ the hearts _right_ out of the chests of his victims with his _bare_ _hands_ and eats them up while they're still _pumping_ and _oozing_ with blood," Axel acted out the actions he described with relish.

"Why the heck would he want to do that?" Sora asked, nose crinkled in disgust.

Axel shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe that's what the curse makes him do, or maybe he just does it because he's insane. I'm just telling you what I've heard. Stories traveling across the grapevine and all. I don't know much about the guy myself, like I said. Never really been interested. Not my kind of magic. But there are definitely some weirdoes in the world and the Nothing Man is one of them. People generally try to stay away from him. They don't want their hearts eaten after all. It's a terrible way to go."

"Worse than getting trampled?"

"Much worse."

Sora furrowed his brow and cupped his chin in his hand in thought. "But you think he can help with the curse, right?" he asked.

"I certainly can't think of anyone else who would know as much about curses. None as close as he is, either."

"Alright, I'm still going then. If he can help me then I'm not afraid of him. I just won't let him eat my heart."

Axel barked a laugh and started walking again. "That's the spirit, kid. I only hope it's as easy as you make it sound."

"Nah, it'll be fine. I'm usually pretty lucky anyway, so I'm sure everything will work out."

"Lucky, huh?" Axel raised an eyebrow while a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Yup. No matter what, things always turn out alright, so I figure I'm pretty lucky."

"Well, as someone who has known both sides of such a fickle coin, let me warn you. Luck has a tendency to slip away in a blink, like thief with a wallet, leaving you alone, broke, and vulnerable. Don't rely on such a traitorous friend, you never know when your good grace will run out." His hands danced out the tragedies of lost luck, like an extra story for Sora's benefit.

Sora considered this. "I'm not worried."

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you. Just be careful."

"I’ll be the most careful that a person can be!" Sora declared. "I’ll be so careful that people will look back on this day and say 'Wow! Sora was so careful!' It’ll be very impressive! Even Roxas will be impressed. And Roxas is _always_ careful."

Axel gave a toothy grin. "I'm sure he is. Such a cute little cat has to be careful. Who knows what things might jump out and try to eat him. Is Roxas okay with finding the Nothing Man? It's possible he might eat feline hearts, too. Crazy people are unpredictable like that. Who knows, maybe feline hearts taste even better than human ones—If you enjoy eating hearts, that is. I don't know much about hearts, taste-wise." His fingers wavered dangerously, indicating the terrors that could befall Roxas and his heart. Sora wondered if Axel was fully conscious of his hand movements or if they actually had a life of their own.

"He's not too scared. Roxas can be brave when he wants to be, he just likes to hide a lot. I'm trying to help him, though, so maybe someday he won't want to hide at all."

Roxas shot him an annoyed look which Sora ignored.

"Well that's very gracious of you to take on such a task. Helping others is a difficult and thankless job. I should know, I cause all kinds of pain to people who try to help me and I never thank them. But I might have to side with Roxas on this one. Sometimes it is much better to hide. Running out and facing an enemy isn't always the wisest decision. In fact, it can sometimes be a very deadly decision. If you aren't careful, that is."

"You can't run away from your problems forever, though.”

Axel laughed again. "That, my friend, is something we will probably never agree on. But I admire your tenacity. May I ask, though, what exactly is your reason for doing this? Breaking the curse, I mean. As far as I can see, this is not your problem to face, it's your friend's problem. _He's_ the one with the curse, right? Why isn't _he_ out on his way to the woods to find some heart-eating weirdo to lift his curse?"

"Because I promised I would help him," was Sora's simple answer.

"Ah, I see. He asked, begged, _pleaded_ for your help, and you couldn't resist helping your poor dear friend. It takes a strong man to admit he can't do everything himself. Or so I've heard. Personally, I've never been in a situation that I couldn't handle on my own."

"No, he didn't ask for help. He yelled at me and told me to go away. But I promised to help him anyway."

Axel stopped in his tracks and turned to look Sora in the eye. "Are you telling me that you are about to risk your life to try to find a way to break a curse for some jerk who doesn't even want your help?"

"Riku wants my help," Sora replied, resolutely. "He just doesn't know how to ask. So instead he just stays miserable and never tries to fix anything because he thinks it's useless, even if it's not. He's really lonely, I can tell. Maybe if I show him that there’s hope, he'll be able to solve the rest of it himself."

"I don't know," Axel mused dubiously, hands flying in firm warning as they continued on. "Those were a lot of assumptions you just made about someone's character. Maybe he's not so nice as you think. Suppose he honestly doesn't want help. Suppose he's not hiding from his problems, but rather embracing the confines of the curse. It's possible. I wouldn't be so trusting of another person's nature if I were you. It certainly sounds nice, but that kind of naive idealism can get you seriously hurt."

"He needs my help, though. I like helping people." Sora gave a firm, decisive nod.

"That's beautiful, kid. You're a real hero," Axel remarked. And if he sounded a little snide and sarcastic, Sora certainly didn't notice.

The two of them slipped into silence as they walked, neither having any more to say on the subject. But Sora wasn't a big fan of quiet, and after a moment, he piped up with a question.

"So what kinds of places have you been?" he asked. "In your travels as a performer, I mean. Do you meet lots of weird people and creatures? Do you have wacky mishaps and exciting adventures?"

"Oh, we've been all kinds of places, really. Big cities, mountain towns, sea-side villages. You name it, we've been there. Anything involving Demyx is a wacky mishap, really, and there have been a few exciting adventures, I suppose. As for weird people, I've certainly met a lot of them. Found some right in Nomura." 

"Really? Like who? Anyone I know?"

"Well you top the list, so I would think so."

"Me?" Sora laughed. "What are you talking about, I'm not weird."

"I honestly don't know any other person who would want to break a curse for someone who isn't even nice to them. Or anyone who brings their cat around with them and talks to it like you do."

"That's not even that weird!"

"It’s very weird. But it's a good kind of weird."

Sora gave a noncommittal hum in response before losing interest in the topic.

"Tell me about your adventures," he insisted. "I want to hear about them!"

"Ah, well, let's see..." Axel paused in thought for a moment before launching into an involved story about how he and Demyx had performed for nobles, who had, of course, fallen in love with them, and then how they had to flee the city when the two had rejected the nobles' advances. This was followed by another harrowing tale describing the small village that created a holiday for the two of them when they accidentally blew up the terrible tax-collector's vault during one of Axel's fire tricks, which ended up showering the square with coins. And then another detailing how they had stowed away on a ship crossing an ocean, which had been unfortunate seeing as sailors commonly consider mages to be bad luck at sea. When the sailors had threatened to throw them overboard, they escaped through their combined powers, stealing a small life boat and using Demyx’s powers over the waves to make a getaway. The stories went on, thrilling Sora and catching even Roxas' attention, until they eventually reached the edge of the city and made their way into the woods.

The woods on the eastern border of Nomura were thick and dense, but not necessarily dark or spooky. Sora had explored the area often and was quite familiar with the tall trees, like many quiet, green friends. Sunlight streamed through gaps in the lush branches, creating dappled patterns of light over the wildflowers and sparse grass on the forest floor. Birds chirped merrily, fluttering about high above them, and bushes rustled from unseen animals running.

Tree sprites peered out from behind branches here and there, small, softly-glowing figures shaped like odd sticks with arms and legs, some long and thin, as straight as pencils, others squat and knotted like fat, crooked thumbs. The sprites watched them silently with large dark eyes, the only discernible feature in their peculiar faces, and Sora smiled up at them. They would slip away when they noticed him looking, though, because tree sprites were notoriously shy.

Roxas' eyes and ears flitted to and fro, watching and listening to the small animals around him intently. He was particularly interested in the tree sprites, who seemed to return the attention, and there were a number of small staring contests between them, which Roxas mostly won.

They followed a dirt trail, wide and well used, for quite some time as Axel continued his wild tales, clearly as amused with his stories as Sora and Roxas were. His voice echoed pleasantly through the trees as they walked, mingling with the rest of the forest chatter.

When they reached what might have been the middle of the forest, however, Axel came to an abrupt halt, his story cutting off mid-sentence. Sora nearly tripped over his feet at the suddenness of it.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I believe the time has come to leave the path," Axel answered. "This way!" He took off into the bushes and trees and Sora scrambled after him.

"Hey wait up! Where are you going?" he called.

"Well you don't expect a cursed old man who eats people's hearts to live right off the main path, do you?" Axel replied looking back over his shoulder. "We've got to search for him deep in the woods! Lucky you have me, though. I can sense some magic coming from over this way. It must be pretty intense for me to feel it from this far. Ah, well, that's not so unexpected." And with that, he tromped on.

Larger branches and bushes leaned just slightly out of his way as he walked, and his stride was swift and even. Those same branches snapped back into place just as Sora reached them, however, whacking him in the face and legs. Roxas ducked down in the basket to avoid a similar leafy fate as Sora stumbled along after his guide.

This continued for a while, wandering on deeper into the woods where even Sora had never been before. Axel led the way confidently, turning sharply at points as if on a whim and pausing now and then to consider their invisible path. Sora bobbed along behind him, rolling his bicycle over every bump and through every bush.

By now they were far from any trail at all, and they stomped through mud and brush indiscriminately. The farther they went, the quieter the forest seemed to get, with a lack of birds and animals that created an ominous stillness. The silence struck both Sora and Roxas as distinctly wrong in a way neither would really be able to describe, and they both fought a strange prickle at the backs of their necks which urged them to turn back. The only thing that moved or made any sort of noise were the bugs, large, ugly flies and swarms of gnats who hovered around their faces. Roxas swiped at a few that came too close to him, and though he was able to knock one fly hard enough that it crashed into a tree, the rest dodged him easily.

The trees slowly became more gnarled and rotted—sullen, wretched things unlike their quiet, peaceful brothers elsewhere in the forest. Their ash-gray bark oozed with sap and bugs and gave off a decaying sort of smell. Though the crooked branches were bare of much foliage, they were twisted and knotted together densely enough that little sunlight was able to make its way through, casting everything in a dark shade. The tree sprites peering down at them were fewer, but they watched the travelers more intently; They were curious to see these newcomers venturing where few dared to go.

Axel came to another sudden stop in front of a dense thicket at the base of a steep, rocky hill.

"What is it?" Sora asked when he had caught up.

"Can't you tell?" Axel replied with a gesture toward the thicket. "We have arrived!"

Sora looked again and noticed that amongst the tall thorny bushes was a wooden door. Further examination revealed walls hidden behind the bushes and trees, as well as a roof and lightly smoking chimney.

"The Nothing Man is in there?"

"Seems like it. Guess that's his house or something." The trio looked on at the house for a moment longer until Axel spoke up again. "Well, I'm off. Good luck!" He turned on his heel and began walking away.

"Wait!" Sora called. "You're really leaving?"

"I said I would, didn't I?" Axel raised an unapologetic eyebrow at him. "I've got things to do, you know, I can't just stick around." Axel gave them a short salute and strode off. With his fast pace, it didn't take long for him to disappear into the trees.

Sora frowned at the spot Axel had retreated into. "I can't believe he really left us," he said, shoulders drooping. "I thought he might change his mind."

"Don't worry about it," said Roxas. "The ground was pretty wet, so we'll be able to follow our tracks back to the main path."

"What about the Nothing Man? Axel told us how terrible he was, and then he just left us alone."

"Nah, I'm not concerned about that, either. He was making up those stories just to scare us. They're not true."

"Why would he make that up?"

"Who knows? He's a traveling performer, right? He makes a living telling stories and stuff. Besides, he kept saying how he really didn't know much about the Nothing Man. All he knew were stories he had heard, and I'm sure he exaggerated the details. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he was lying about the other stories he was telling us, too."

"He wouldn't lie about that!" Sora gasped, scandalized.

"Why wouldn't he? We don't really know him, and he's a pretty shady guy anyway. And come on, who would honestly build a bronze statue of him and put it in the center of town?" Roxas scoffed.

"But he saved all those kids from getting hit by that train with one hand while capturing the bad guy who had stolen the jewels with the other hand, which saved the town from ruin! Of course they would make a statue for him!"

"There's no way that happened," Roxas snorted. "He can't stop a train with one hand like he said. Plus, how could a few missing jewels ruin the economy of an entire town? Face it, Sora. He lied."

Sora drooped even further, feeling betrayed. "I can't believe he would lie to us. I thought we were friends!" he whined.

"Aw, come on," Roxas said. "Don't be like that. Sometimes people lie, it's just a fact of life. The important thing is that we're here and we need the Nothing Man's help. Right?"

"That's right!" Sora exclaimed, brightening up instantly, all offenses forgotten in the face of their quest. "We need to break Riku's curse! Let's go!" Roxas chuckled at his enthusiasm.

Sora leaned his bike against a nearby tree and Roxas jumped out of the basket. They walked up to the door and, without even a moment's pause, Sora knocked boldly. There was no response, however, so Sora tried again, knocking louder. Again, no response.

"Hello! Nothing Man! Are you here?" Sora called, pounding on the door enough to shake it. "My name is Sora and I need your help! Hello!"

The door creaked open, seemingly of its own accord.

"I guess it was unlocked," said Sora.

"Or maybe it opened with magic," Roxas supposed with a frown.

"Oh you're right! I like that idea better!"

It seemed that Roxas' guess had been correct, because as soon as the two of them stepped inside, the door slammed itself shut behind them, making them jump.

The room they had entered was larger than expected, stretching back in a long sort of tunnel. While wooden walls and roof made up the front, the rest of the room appeared to have been carved into the hillside like a cave. There was a fireplace settled where the wooden walls met cave rock. The blazing fire it held was the only light in the room, which gave everything a peculiar orange glow and cast flickering shadows across the walls and floor. In front of the fireplace sat a worn couch and armchair with a low table set between them. Shelves had been carved into the cave walls here and there, holding, in addition to many dusty books, a number of odd items that Sora wasn't altogether sure what they were. There were half-burnt candles shaped like human hands with a wick at each finger's end, an assortment of small rodent skulls, oddly-shaped jars filled with mysterious colored goo, bundles of bird feathers, shriveled fruit covered in mold, figurines of porcelain doll heads, twisted metal contraptions whose purposes were unclear but which looked painful in any configuration, displays of large bugs pinned to boards or else encased in amber, and a bowl containing what appeared to be eyeballs. (There were a great many other things, but Sora decided to stop looking once he'd noticed the eyeballs.)

The pungent smell of decay wafted over them, like sour milk and burnt hair combined, making Roxas sneeze. The room, however, appeared to be empty.

"Um, hello? Mister Nothing Guy? Sorry for the intrusion. The door opened so we came in...Is anybody home?" Sora called out, remembering his promise to be cautious.

There was movement from the back of the room in a dark corner that caught their eye.

"What business do you seek with me?" a deep voice rumbled.

"Are you the Nothing Man?" Sora asked, rooted to his spot by the door. Roxas' ears snapped back warily and he crouched in a defensive pose by Sora's feet.

"In a manner of speaking, I am," spoke the voice. "I am nothing, and yet I am a man. Perhaps I am more one than the other, but that seems to vary by day. Today I am more nothing, but tomorrow I may be more man. Such is my existence."

"Um, okay, I guess. My name is Sora, and this is Roxas. My friend Riku is under a curse and we thought you could help us break it."

There was a tense pause before a tall figure emerged from the shadows. As he stepped forward, the firelight fell over him, revealing a broad-shouldered man wearing a long dark robe and a crimson cloak which dragged on the floor. A belt full of tattered leather pouches hung from his waist and looked as though it had been sewn onto the robe. His head was wrapped completely in red bandages and buckled leather straps, covering his entire face save two openings for his mouth and right eye.

"You thought I could help you break a curse," the Nothing Man repeated slowly, as if savoring the shape of the words on his tongue.

"Y-yeah." He faltered slightly with surprise over the Nothing Man’s appearance, but recovered quickly and struggled not to gawk. “My friend said you know a lot about curses, so we thought you might know how to break Riku's curse. Can you?"

The man gave a low chuckle, a raspy sound that crept under the skin. "My knowledge comprises the entirety of all that is known of that dark magic. Indeed, there is no other who knows more of curses than I." He moved forward slowly until he reached the fireplace, where he stopped and gazed into the flames. "Riku, you said his name was?"

"Yeah, Riku. This old wizard put a curse on him so that anyone he cares about or who cares about him gets hurt. Do you know how to fix a curse like that?"

"Riku, the mage nephew of Sephiroth, head of the Jenova family who governs Nomura," he said, not so much a question as a statement.

"Yeah, that's the one!"

The Nothing Man gave another chuckle, and Sora decided he did not like the sound.

"I know very well the curse that afflicts Riku, nephew of Sephiroth. But it is not the one of which you speak."

"You mean he has _two_ curses?" Sora exclaimed, horrified. How on earth was he going to fix two curses? "What's the other one?"

"Come here, boy. Sit, and I will tell you." Sora did as he was told and sat down gingerly on the couch closest to the door and Roxas jumped up beside him.

The Nothing Man settled in the armchair across from them. Up close, they noticed the putrid body odor reeking off of him, as if he hadn't bathed in years. Sora tried his best not to make a face and Roxas' fur stood on end. The one eye peering out from behind the red bandages was an unsettling golden color and the visible skin around it and his mouth was gray and puckered. His teeth were crooked and rotten, almost as yellow as his eye, but looked as sharp as a carnivorous beast's. The Nothing Man gazed at them silently for a full minute, and Sora fidgeted uncomfortably under the weight of it.

"It is possible that Riku may have two curses upon him, as you said," he spoke at last. "Perhaps the first curse, the one you speak of, made it possible for the second to take place..." The Nothing Man drifted off, staring into the shadows dancing around the low table between them.

"Okay, well how do I fix the first one?" Sora urged with a thoughtful frown. "I might as well get that one out of the way first."

"The curse you described is the result of a distortion of the heart, which deforms feelings of happiness and love around it into physical pain. A type three curse, out of the five main categories. It can only be cured by the power of a pure heart. A pure heart must love him unconditionally and that love must be returned, then the magic inherent in a pure heart will cleanse the twisted external impurities that were cast into his heart, hopefully before the curse kills the bearer of the pure heart.

"But that is no matter. For I do not think there is anyone in the world who possesses a truly pure heart. And even if one were found, the second curse would destroy Riku long before he could be saved."

"EH!" Sora shrieked, jolting forward in his seat. "What do you mean it will destroy him! What the heck is the second curse?"

The Nothing Man's mouth twisted into a sinister smile.

"The second curse that Riku, nephew of Sephiroth, is plagued with is the very same one that I myself have suffered for fifty years."

Sora's mouth opened and closed a few times in surprise. "Oh," he managed to say at last. "Are...are you sure? I mean, how do you know? Have you ever met Riku?"

It was impossible to tell what kind of expression the Nothing Man was giving him, obscured as his face was, but he might have been annoyed. "I have never met Riku, my newest replacement, but I have certainly met Xehanort, the caster of the spell."

"Xehanort? Oh, Kairi said he was the nobles' adviser or something."

"That is what he usually presents himself as. In order to tell you what is happening to your friend, I suppose I must first tell you my own story."

Sora was about to protest because he honestly didn't care anything about the Nothing Man, let alone his story. But Roxas, knowing that something offensive was about to come out of Sora's mouth and fearing for their safety, bit the boy's finger sharply. Sora gave a start, looking down at Roxas with a hurt expression, and Roxas shook his head in warning. Sora got the message and sunk back in his seat with a bored sulk as the Nothing Man began his story.

"Years and years ago, when I was a young man with a name of my own, I was a nobleman of a city very far away from here that I'm sure you have never heard of. That city does not exist anymore, not really. I was a mage, as was my elder brother. My brother was the head of the family, and he controlled all aspects of government. He was a very controlling man, and though I and others in my family wanted to help, he would not let us interfere. Back then, I carried the name Ansem, and because I was denied politics, I became a scholar. I was known as Ansem the Wise, because of my education—but looking back, I realize how foolish I really was. So undeserving of that name." He shook his head with a bitter sigh before continuing.

"One day, a man calling himself Xehanort came to us, claiming to be an experienced adviser of finances. Though my brother trusted few with any sort of responsibility, he had run the city into debt, and so he hired the man. I did not speak to Xehanort often, but he must have sensed my dissatisfaction and jealousy at being denied the power to govern my city in any way. Not long after, perhaps a year or so, I began to see the shadow monsters." At this, Sora and Roxas perked up in their seats.

"They came at night, at first infrequently, but then almost every night. I know now that when they caught me each night, they were stealing my spirit and filling my soul with darkness. Xehanort controls these shadow monsters. He casts a curse over his victims that takes away their spirit energy. A type five curse. The monsters are born from darkness and chase their appointed target, stealing their spirit energy a little every night, until at last the victim has lost all of their spirit and becomes filled with darkness. When this happens, the victim becomes Xehanort's puppet, with no will of their own, succumbing to their darkest vices and obeying Xehanort's every command.

"He targets mages and nobles, preferably combined, so that their power becomes his own. The spirit energy he steals becomes his own life force and he feeds off of it, like an elixir of life. With the noble mage under his control, Xehanort takes power, in the shadows behind his puppet. His monsters become strong enough to possess soldiers, and with them, he wreaks chaos and havoc over the city. Through my years of observation, I have discovered that along with the spirit energy he steals, the only thing keeping Xehanort alive is the chaos he creates. Sometimes by declaring war on another city, sometimes by simply attacking the town's own people under some pretense or another, the violence, hatred, and fear fills every heart with darkness. He feeds off the darkness in the hearts of the people the way he feeds off the life force of his initial victim, until he sucks the city dry. When he is done, he moves on to the next city, leaving death and ruin in his wake.

"This is the tragedy that befell me and my city so long ago. Xehanort eventually possessed me, causing my jealousy of my brother to take over. Under his power, I staged a coup and killed my brother and all his supporters." He looked away for a moment, shaking his head in shame before continuing on with a voice heavy with pain. "Civil war destroyed our city, and all but myself died because of it. Xehanort usually kills his victims, but somehow I managed to regain enough of my senses and escape. I suppose Xehanort did not think me enough of a threat to bother going after. He had achieved his goal by then, after all.

"Since then, I have followed his trail, going from city to city, watching him destroy others the way he had destroyed me and those I loved. I have seen it time and time again. His most recent target was the city of Burmecia, and now he has set his sights on Nomura." Roxas went rigid, and Sora blinked in surprise.

"I'm not sure why I follow him still," he continued. "Perhaps I am still looking for a way to get my soul back, my spirit that was stolen from me. The darkness is still inside of me, infecting me. My name has been stolen from me, along with my spirit, and so I have become nothing. Without a soul, I am rotting from the inside out, wasting away. See here." The Nothing Man brought his gloved hand out from the folds of his robe and held it for Sora to see. He slowly peeled the glove off to reveal rotting, gray skin covered in boils and pustules, looking like spoiled meat and smelling even worse. His skin was the consistency of melting wax, and as he held his hand out, small droplets of viscous flesh dripped onto the table. Sora and Roxas looked on in disgust until the Nothing Man finally tucked his hand back inside the glove. "My body is decaying without my soul. For years I have followed Xehanort, learning his secrets and strategies in the hopes of finding a cure for myself. But so far, I have found very little, as you can see.

"Perhaps, though, I follow him as I simply know not what else to do. For so long I have obsessed over him, consumed by his shadows. Perhaps I am still his puppet, in a way. A puppet without a master, longing for a purpose but finding none. But such is my existence, now. There is no changing it.

"This is the fate of your friend Riku. The only mage in the Jenova family, he is the perfect target. The curse on his heart has made him all the more vulnerable, I'm sure. I have followed Xehanort to Nomura just to witness this, and I know what is to come. The darkness inside me shivers with anticipation. Soon Xehanort will possess him, devastate your city, and infect every resident's heart with darkness, as he has countless others. If he is lucky, Xehanort will kill him soon. If not, he will become like me."

"But there must be something we can do!" Sora cried, horrified. "There must be a way to stop him!"

"There is not. I have been trying for fifty years. Once Xehanort has cast his curse, there is no hope—not for your friend, not for your city, not for you," the Nothing Man stated grimly.

"No! I refuse to believe that! There has to be a way for Riku to break the curse! I'm sure of it! I won't let him lose his spirit and decay like you!"

The Nothing Man's smiled a disgusting, sharp-toothed smile, like a feral animal. "There is one way to counteract the decay of this body that I have found," he said with a perversely giddy tone.

"What is it?" Sora asked warily, not liking the hungry look the Nothing Man was giving him. He fidgeted in his seat.

"The only way to sustain a body without a soul is to eat the heart of another. If I consume your heart, I consume part of your soul, and I become more man than nothing once again." He was leaning forward now, his voice an inhuman growl and his mouth impossibly wide in greedy delight.

"Oh," Sora said faintly. "I guess Axel wasn't lying about that part after all."

"No, I don't suppose he was." The Nothing Man rose from the armchair and stepped forward, his golden eye glowing like the eyes of the shadow monsters. Sora struggled to get out of the way, but found that dark shadowy tendrils had emerged from the couch, gripping his wrists and ankles and tethering him to his seat.

"Foolish boy. You have failed to notice my trap. Those looking for answers will listen to anything as long as it is relevant. While I told my story, the shadows took hold of you, and now you shall never leave. And it looks like you have such a tasty heart, too, with all your hope and idealism. Your heart should sustain me for quite a while, I think."

Sora struggled harder against his shadowy bonds, but to no avail. He was trapped to the couch with no way to escape. The Nothing Man kicked the low table between them to the side with enough force to shatter it against the wall, and Sora cried out in panic, squirming frantically.

From one of the several leather pouches on his belt, the Nothing Man produced a long, ragged knife, brown with rust and dried blood.

"Do sit still. This process is far easier if you don't move." The Nothing Man raised the knife, ready to strike, and Sora screamed.

Just then, a figure slammed into the Nothing Man's side, knocking the knife out of his hand and sending it clattering to the floor. He twisted to face his sudden attacker with a venomous snarl.

"Who the hell are you!" he screeched.

It was a boy about the same age and height as Sora, with a similarly lithe build, wearing a plain white t-shirt and khaki pants over bare feet. He had honey-blond hair that stuck up from his head as if he had just rolled out of bed and bright blue eyes set in a determined scowl.

"Roxas!" Sora cried. "Be careful!"

"I'm always careful, you idiot," the boy replied. "How the hell did you not notice those shadows grabbing you?"

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Sora whined. "I didn't feel them at all!"

"Tch, whatever," Roxas scoffed.

"So the cat was a human after all," the Nothing Man broke in with a growl. "A cowardly shape-shifter if ever I met one. No matter, I suppose I will feast on two hearts this evening instead of one."

"Like hell you will you ugly bastard!" Roxas cried before tackling him once again, this time with enough force to bring him to the floor.

Sora cheered as the two struggled on the dirt floor. The Nothing Man was able to throw Roxas off him, but, as limber and swift as a cat, he managed to roll to the side and snatch the fallen knife before the Nothing Man could gain the upper hand. Roxas stood over his enemy still crouched on the floor, and held the knife against the man's neck.

"Let Sora go, you rancid freak!" Roxas demanded.

"I think not!" he hissed.

"Roxas look out!"

But before Roxas could do anything of the sort, shadows had emerged from the floor to grasp his ankles, holding him in place. Spindly shadow arms rose up and grabbed his wrists, and though he fought against them, they held fast.

The Nothing Man stood and towered over the boy.

"Why must you make this so difficult?" he snarled. "Fighting will get you nowhere. I think I'll eat your heart first, as you have irritated me."

Roxas spat in his face and, with all his strength, managed to twist his captured hand still gripping the knife and slash the Nothing Man's chest. The Nothing Man cried out in pain and staggered back. His focus had apparently been disrupted enough that the shadowy bonds trapping both boys loosened, and they wrenched themselves free. They scrambled towards the door, but a number of shadow arms with clawed hands rose out of the floor and walls to bar their way.

"You will not escape," The Nothing Man growled behind them. When they turned, they saw him lumbering toward them, one hand gripping his wound. The knife had torn through his robe and cut deep into his chest, but instead of blood, the gash dripped with the viscous gray substance that made up his flesh. Some of the bandages around his face had fallen loose, revealing more blistered skin. Where his left eye should have been was a large scab oozing with puss.

Sora and Roxas looked around desperately for some means of escape, but as there were no windows and the only door was barred by shadow monsters, there seemed little hope.

That, of course, was the moment when the wooden door and walls burst inward with a fiery blast, startling everyone.

"Hey kid, are you still alive?" called a familiar voice. Over the rubble of what had once been the wooden front of the house stepped Axel. When he caught sight of Sora, his eyes lit up. "Ah, excellent, I'm not too late!" His eyebrows shot up in surprise when he noticed the second boy. "And you have a friend now? Well okay, I guess I can save him, too. Let's go!"

Sora and Roxas ran for the newly-created opening, but just as they reached the threshold, a hand latched around Sora's ankle with a painfully strong grip. Sora yelped in surprise and fell to his knees. He turned to see the Nothing Man sprawled out on the floor, arm outstretched and clinging to him desperately.

"You will not escape!" he hissed through his melting face. "I must have your heart!"

"Not today, motherfucker!" Roxas yelled before stabbing the Nothing Man's hand with the knife deeply enough to pin it to the ground. The Nothing Man shrieked in pain and Sora's ankle was released.

They ran out of the house and Axel gave a forceful thrust of his hand in the air, causing a wall of fire to rise up between them and the Nothing Man, effectively stopping the shadow arms that pursued them. Sora grabbed his bike, still waiting patiently by the tree, and hopped on, and all three all raced off into the forest. It had grown late and the sun had nearly set, but Axel used a palm full of flames to light up the path as they ran. They only slowed once they had reached the main path again, adrenaline pumping through their veins. Sora slid off his bike and walked it beside him while the other two caught up.

"I thought you said you weren't going to stick around!" Sora said, giving Axel a blinding smile.

"Yeah well, I changed my mind. So what?" Axel shrugged nonchalantly, trying his best to look cool and unconcerned.

"You were worried about us! Even though you're pretending you weren't!" Sora teased, toothy grin wide with self-satisfaction.

"I was not! It just so happened that I had nothing better to do today. I wasn't worried about you after dropping you off at the home of a crazed heart-eating murderer. In fact, I couldn't care less if you had died there."

"You're lying again!" Sora chuckled merrily.

"What!" Axel exclaimed, affronted by the accusation. "I'm not lying. And what do you mean 'again'? I never lie!"

"Please, everything you say is a lie," Roxas scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"And another thing!" Axel cried, pointing a long finger and the blond boy. "Who the hell are you? How dare you accuse me of such things when we've never even met! I just saved your skinny ass, kid, show some more respect, huh?"

"Tch, hardly," Roxas muttered under his breath with a petulant scowl, causing Axel to fume even more.

"Don't you recognize him?" Sora piped. "This is Roxas. You've met him before."

Axel stopped dead in his tracks, though Roxas kept walking. Sora paused between them, unsure who to follow.

"Roxas? As in your cat? The little yellow cat Roxas who rides in the basket on your bike and who you talk to like a person?"

"Yeah, that's the one. I talk to him like a person because he is a person. He just prefers to be a cat most of the time."

"What!" Axel balked. "What the fuck does that mean, you're a person who prefers to be a cat! Who in their right mind would prefer to be a cat?"

Sora opened his mouth in Roxas' defense, but Roxas beat him to it. "Shut the fuck up asshole," he spat, still walking ahead and not looking back. "It's none of your business what I do, so drop it."

"What? I just—No! I will not drop it! You're a shape-shifter, then! That means you have magic! Why would you want to go around as a cat all the time? Have you been trained in magic at all? Have you gone to a mage academy?" Axel burst forward, catching up to Roxas easily with his long legs. "How can you just sit around and waste all your talent like this?"

Roxas turned to him sharply with a vicious snarl. "I'm not wasting my talent! You don't know anything about it, okay? So leave me the fuck alone!" With that, he ran off ahead, changing back into a cat in one fluid motion. "I'll see you back at the apartment, Sora!" he called before disappearing down the path.

Sora sighed as he watched him go. He caught up to Axel, who was still looking perplexed and offended.

"Don't worry about him," Sora said. "He just gets really defensive sometimes."

Axel turned to him, eyebrows drawn in concern. "Why do you let him stay as a cat? He really is wasting his talent. A person shouldn't live as a cat, even if he is a shape-shifter."

Sora chewed his lip. "Roxas has been through a lot. He got hurt real bad a while ago, and being a cat is just easier for him right now. But I'm trying to help him, like I said before, so that one day he can face his problems. There's no point rushing things, though. The healing process can take a long time. But I'm confident he'll get better soon. The fact that he turned into a person today at all is real improvement! It shows that he'll change into a human if he really needs to, so that's good. If he hadn't, I'd definitely be dead! Plus he stayed that way long enough to have a conversation with you. I think that means he likes you!" he said brightly.

But Axel only gave him a doubtful frown. "Still, though, this can't be healthy—" he began, but Sora effectively cut him off with a sharp shake of his head.

"It's no use arguing about it," he said firmly. "He’ll get better when he’s ready. And in the mean time all we can do is be supportive."

Axel opened his mouth, but couldn't find any words and so closed it again and sighed instead. "You really think he likes me?" he asked after a moment.

"Sure he does!" Sora said brightly. "He didn't scratch your eyes out or attack you or anything! He definitely likes you!"

Axel blinked, then gave a crooked grin. "Well I guess that's better than nothing."

"Anyway, thanks a lot for saving us from the Nothing Man. He was going to eat our hearts for sure!"

"No problem."

"By the way, part of your story was wrong. He doesn't rip the heart out with his bare hands. He uses this big rusty knife."

"Ah, good to know. I shall amend my story in the future. Did you at least get the information you needed about your friend's curse?"

"Yup! I learned all kinds of useful stuff!"

"Well at least some good came out of all this, I suppose."

"Yeah, it all worked out just like I thought it would. I'm so lucky!" he laughed.

"What do you mean you're lucky? You almost died!"

"Yeah, but I didn't! Both you and Roxas saved me from getting eaten. That's super lucky!"

"Fair enough," Axel conceded. "It is a bit of a miracle you aren't dead."

Sora told Axel everything about their exciting meeting with the Nothing Man as they made their way through the dark forest back to the city. Axel confirmed his earlier statement that Sora was one of the weirdest people he had ever met.


	5. The Mercenary's Advice

When Sora arrived home that evening, he found his apartment dark and quiet. He turned on the cheap gas lamp sitting on the shelf to his right as he stepped inside and closed the door, but the light revealed a seemingly empty room.

In the far right corner sat his bed, sagging slightly with age, but functional as ever in its squat wooden frame. At the foot of the bed lay the colorful rug sewn from rags that Aerith had shown him how to make, and next to it was a low bedside table. A shabby dresser whose finish had long since worn off before Sora had ever owned it stood nearby, bursting with unfolded clothes. To the left of the room was the kitchen area, containing a small stove, a brick oven, a sink, an icebox, and a cluttered counter. Against the wall opposite the door, underneath the window that overlooked the street when the curtain wasn't drawn, was a table accompanied by mismatched chairs. The floor was littered with balls of socks and heaps of t-shirts and shorts, alongside odd papers and knickknacks that may have once had a place on a table or shelf but which now resided comfortably on the floor.

"Roxas?" Sora called as he slipped out of his shoes. "Are you here?"

"Yeah," answered a muffled voice from the direction of the bed. Sora looked over and noticed a small lump beneath the quilted covers.

"Are you hiding under blankets again?" Sora asked with an amused smile.

"I'm burrowing."

"Of course," he chuckled. "Are you going to come out?"

"No."

Sora made his way over to the oven and lit the coals inside it in order to combat the evening chill that had settled in the room. Crouching in front of the open oven door, he picked up the thin metal rod hanging from its hook nearby and tried to encourage the fire a bit. He stoked and prodded the slowly-heating coals in quiet contemplation.

"So, do you want to talk about it?" Sora ventured at length.

"No."

Sora closed the door, placed the rod back in its spot, and turned to lean against the counter. He pursed his lips slightly, which made him realize how chapped they were. This took up his attention for a moment as he rubbed and smacked his dry lips together. He picked off a bit of the dead skin with his fingers and flicked it absently to the side.

"You know, that was the first time in a while that you actually turned back into a human," Sora said thoughtfully. The lump on the bed said nothing, and after a moment, he continued. "So I was just thinking that it was pretty cool, what you did. Attacking that weird guy and all. You definitely stopped him from eating me." He paused again and heard what might have been a muttered 'whatever'. "And you even talked to Axel. That was surprising. Well, not that you actually  _talked_  to him, more like you yelled at him for no reason—but still, that's something."

"I said I don't want to talk about it."

"I just think your first conversation in a while with someone other than me could have been a little nicer, is all. You know, more like 'hi how are you,' 'fine thanks, and you' sort of thing. Maybe we should work on your anger issues or something."

"I don't have anger issues," Roxas snapped. "That guy was just pissing me off."

"Can you come out from under the blankets? It's weird talking to you like this."

"So don't talk to me, then. I'm not coming out, and you can't make me. Just leave me alone."

"Alright, alright," Sora said, holding his hands up in surrender—not that Roxas could see the gesture, buried under blankets as he was.

When Roxas got into one of his sour moods, it usually took a while for him to come out again, and Sora had grown accustomed to dealing with his friend's ill temper. He pursed his chapped lips together again before releasing a small sigh.

He busied himself with dinner preparation, humming a tune to himself as he chopped the ingredients and tossed them around in a pan. In about ten minutes, he had his concoction sizzling to his satisfaction, and the small apartment was filled with its appetizing smell.

Roxas poked his head out from under the covers, his small nose twitching with curiosity.

"What's that?" he asked with an air of feigned disinterest.

"Oh, nothing," Sora replied, matching Roxas' bored tone. "Just some chicken, I guess. Nothing special."

"What kind of chicken?"

Sora shrugged. "I dunno, just something I put together. It has some spices, I guess. And some bell peppers."

"Oh," Roxas gulped.

"Yeah, it's whatever. Ah man, but I think I made too much. There's way too much chicken in here. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to eat it all." Sora gave an innocent glance to the cat. "Unless  _you_  want some."

Roxas huddled back into the blankets. "Well..."

"Oh, what am I saying? I forgot you aren't coming out from under the blankets. Darn, that's too bad. I'll just have to eat this  _all by myself_. Even if I get  _so totally full_ that I get sick and throw up all over the place." He pulled a plate out from a cupboard and piled it with food. "Hm, and what to drink with it? Oh, I know, I'll have some milk. I just  _love_  milk, don't you?"

He poured himself a tall glass of milk and carried it with his food to the table, quite aware of the eyes following him. Once seated, he cut himself a chunk of meat and paused with the fork half-way to his mouth. He looked up and caught Roxas' eye. The cat was watching him intently, neck straining out from under the blankets and pupils blown.

"Oh hi, Roxas, was there something you wanted?" Sora asked, blinking innocently.

"Um, well, I just..."

"You aren't hungry, are you? Oh what am I saying, of  _course_  you aren't. You're determined to stay under the blankets all night and  _nothing_  I do could  _possibly_  bring you out. Isn't that right?"

"Y-yeah...that's right. I'm not coming out." Roxas' eyes followed the piece of chicken as Sora brought it the rest of the way into his mouth. Sora chewed it enthusiastically, making obnoxious eating sounds.

"Mm, this is so good! The peppers turned out really well! Aren't bell peppers just the best?"

"Yeah, I love bell peppers," Roxas replied longingly.

"Well you can certainly have some if you want," Sora said through a mouthful of food. "You'd just have to come out from under the blankets..."

Roxas hesitated, but only for a moment. He slipped out from under the covers, slunk over, and jumped up on the table, his shoulders hunched and his tail low. Sora beamed at him, then grabbed an extra plate and shallow saucer from the kitchen. He filled Roxas' plate and poured some milk from his glass into the saucer. Roxas dug in gratefully and shamelessly, and Sora laughed quietly to himself.

The two of them ate happily in a comfortable silence as Roxas' bad mood eased away with every bite of food. The sounds of people and automobiles in the street below drifted through the window in a background hum, pleasant and familiar.

"So," Roxas said eventually, looking up from his bowl of milk. "What are we going to do about those curses?"

Any puffed up pride at having successfully pulled Roxas out of his sour mood instantly deflated and Sora slumped in his chair.

"I have no idea," he admitted.

"I mean, assuming the Nothing Man was telling the truth, which I kind of think he was, the whole city is in a lot of trouble."

"I know."

"Did you hear what he said about Burmecia?" Roxas asked, a noticeable waver in his voice.

Sora looked up and saw the urgency and fear in his friend's eyes. "Yeah, I heard."

"Sora, I can't go through that again. If those shadow things were really responsible for what happened in Burmecia..." Roxas' voice trailed away as his throat became suddenly tight. He swallowed thickly and closed his eyes. "I think we should just leave the city," he added in a low voice. "We should get out while we still can."

"You want us to run away? And leave behind all our friends?" Sora frowned at Roxas, but the cat wouldn't meet his gaze.

"We'll take them too!"

"And all the other people who live here? What about them? Should we abandon them?"

"If that's what it takes!"

"No, Roxas. We can't do that. You know we can't. We'll find a way to save the city."

"Sora, please," Roxas begged, his voice barely above a whisper. "I can't go through that again."

The naked pain in Roxas' voice dissolved whatever frustration Sora had with him.

"I promise you won’t have to."

There was a tense pause, and Sora feared Roxas would retreat back under the covers at any minute. But the moment was broken when Roxas gave a shaky laugh. Sora blinked at the unexpected response. Roxas sighed to himself and finally looked up at Sora.

"How do you do that?" he asked.

"Do what?" 

Roxas shook his head and gave a wry grin, which looked especially odd on a cat's face. "You just...you say these ridiculous things all the time. All these crazy promises. Like, 'oh, I'll break your curse' or 'don't worry, I'll help you get better,' or 'I promise I'll save the city!' And it's  _impossible_. What you're saying is just impossible! And yet..." Roxas gave another incredulous chuckle. "And yet I believe you. How do you do that?"

Sora shrugged, unsure what to say and feeling strangely embarrassed. He poked at the scant remains on his plate with his fork as a light blush crept over his cheeks.

"We'll figure out what to do tomorrow, alright?" he said.

Roxas gave a small nod in agreement.

"So, do you want to help wash the dishes?" Sora asked. He was never one to stay serious for long, and figured that unhappy conversations didn't need to last forever. While someone else might have been disconcerted by Sora's sudden shift in topic, Roxas was grateful for the return to their normal dynamic.

"What are you talking about?" he scoffed. "I can't help! I have no thumbs!"

"You  _could_  have thumbs, though! Come on, you already turned into a person once today, why not do it again and help me wash up for once? It'll be fun! We can sing a cleaning song!  _We wash dirty dishes, as we make wishes, we wish for less dirty dishes to wash!_ " Sora sang cheerfully.

"Yeah," Roxas drawled, stretching out the word like a yawn. "You know, I  _would_ , but...ah...I'm really tired, actually. Turning into a person takes a  _lot_  out of me. And, uh, I think I might be coming down with something." Roxas coughed pathetically into one paw. "So, I wouldn't want to spread my germs or anything...I think I should probably just head to bed. It'd be the best for both of us, really..." Roxas jumped down from the table and sauntered back to the bed.

Sora blew a raspberry after him as he collected the plates, but Roxas only gave a dismissive flick of his tail before curling into a comfortable ball and feigning sleep.

 

* * *

 

Morning sunlight filtered through the curtains enough to stir Cloud slowly out of sleep. He stretched out lazily in his bed, easing out of the slight disorientation that blurs thought just after awaking. He recalled vague impressions of a dream that had involved riding large multicolored birds that might have resembled chicken. Cloud sat up and gave a great satisfying yawn as he worked a few mild kinks out of his back, reveling in the momentary peace of morning before he had to get to work. He blinked sleepily as his eyes wandered over his apartment…

—And gave a yelp like dog whose tail is stepped on when his gaze landed on Sora sitting casually at his dining table.

"Sora! What the hell are you doing in my apartment!" Cloud shrieked.

Sora shrugged, unperturbed.

"Why are you here? What time is it?"

Sora glanced at the clock on the wall. “Six o’clock.”

"Six! Six in the morning? What are you even doing awake? The shop doesn't open until eight!"

Sora shrugged again. "I dunno. I just kinda woke up."

"And so you decided to hang out here? Of all places? How long have you been sitting there?"

"Not that long."

"How—wait, how did you get in? That door was locked!"

Sora gave another shrug.

"Stop shrugging! I demand answers! How did you get into my apartment? I distinctly remember locking the door last night!"

"I don't know, I just opened the door and walked in."

"How are you always getting through locked doors! You need to stop this!"

"I'll knock next time. Hey, your hair looks funny. It's sticking up all over the place," Sora snickered.

"I'm sure it can't look any worse than your hair does on a daily basis." Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose, already feeling a headache coming on. "Do you want breakfast?" he asked after a few deep breaths.

"Okay!"

"Fine, just give me a minute." Cloud shoved his feet into the slippers by his bed and shuffled to his wardrobe, grumbling outrageous profanities as he pulled a robe over his pajamas. He attempted to flatten his hair with his hand as casually and as unselfconsciously as he could.

"How about scrambled eggs?" he asked as he made his way to the kitchen. His apartment had a similar basic layout to Sora's, with the kitchen at one end and the bed area at the other. One major difference between the two apartments was that Cloud's was slightly larger, as the common construction of buildings in the western district had the floors growing steadily larger as they went up—Sora's apartment was slightly bigger than the delivery shop, and Cloud's, in turn, was a bit larger than Sora's. The other difference was that Cloud's apartment was impeccably tidy. Every small thing had a particular place, arranged for a clean, aesthetically pleasing, if somewhat spartan, look. Probably the most distinctive feature of the room were the swords decorating the walls. About six in total, varying in size and shape, they were all immaculately gleaming, intricately designed, and incredibly sharp.

"I want an omelet," said Sora. "With ham in it. No, wait, bacon! Ham  _and_  bacon! And tomatoes."

"You don't get to tell me what to make for breakfast," Cloud growled as he pulled out a pan and eggs. "An omelet is too complicated."

"But I'm your guest!"

"You're not my guest if I don't invite you."

"Fine, scrambled eggs."

"Good."

Cloud prepared breakfast in silence, the soft sizzling of eggs and tapping of the spatula on the pan the only sound in the apartment. It was pleasant until a thought struck Cloud—Sora was being incredibly quiet. Not once had he burst out telling some odd story or started singing some kind of breakfast song or pestered him with bizarre questions. This of course, was a very strange phenomena. Much stranger, in fact, than Sora appearing in his apartment—that at least had happened before. But Sora had never sat quietly for any length of time. It was weird.

Cloud snuck a look over at the boy and found him with his elbows on the table and chin in his hands, eyes downcast.

"Oh no," he groaned.

"What?" Sora asked.

"You've got that look on your face."

"What look?"

"That look that means something's wrong. And you're in  _my_  apartment, sitting  _quietly_ , so that means you think  _I_  can help with whatever problem you have. Dammit, I should have known something was up when you caved in to the scrambled eggs so easily." Cloud sighed as he scooped two plates full of eggs. "Alright what do you want from me?"

"I need some advice."

"Advice! Crap. Why are you asking  _me_? I realize that I am literally the closest person you could ask, but if you go across the street, I'm sure Aerith would  _love_  to help you. She gives advice, whether you ask for it or not. And Zack loves butting into people's business, so I'm sure he'll get a kick out of whatever it is. It'll take less than five minutes to get there. You'll be much better off, I assure you."

But Sora remained where he sat, moping at the swirled wooden veins on the table surface.

Cloud set the plates down in front of them and sat across from Sora. "And if you wanted an decent breakfast, you should have appeared in Tifa's kitchen instead of mine." He scowled at his eggs as he ate them.

"Okay," Sora began, "so I have two problems that I need your advice about."

Cloud inclined his head to indicate that he was listening.

"The first one is about my friend Riku. I told you about him the other day."

"The one with the curse?"

"Yeah! So, yesterday while you were all hungover and stuff, Roxas and I went to this weird curse guy to ask how to break Riku's curse—"

"I wasn't that hungover. I never said you could skip a day of work."

"Well you never got up in the morning and when I knocked on your door you shouted at me for being loud, and then I heard you throwing up."

Cloud fumed, but could say nothing in response because all of that had been quite true.

"So anyway, the curse guy turned out to be all weird and gooey and he smelled really bad and tried to eat my heart, but then Roxas stabbed him and Axel blew up his house and we ran away. But before all that happened, he said that Riku has this  _other_  curse that's going to make all these monsters kill everybody so that some old guy can eat our souls or something." Upon finishing, Sora promptly shoved a forkful of eggs in his cheek.

Cloud set his own fork down and leaned back in his chair, looking up at his ceiling as if it could provide answers of some sort. "I'm not even sure where to start with that one, Sora. Your cat...stabbed a gooey person? And then someone blew up his house? How exactly do you expect me to react to that?"

"How can I stop the evil guy from using crazy shadow monsters to eat everybody's soul?" Sora gave Cloud an earnest, desperate look.

"Well, if I just pretend that any of that made at least a little bit of sense...I guess I would say that you have to go after the evil guy. Right? Stop him from...whatever you said he was doing."

"Using shadow monsters to eat people's souls and destroy the city."

"Right. That. Stop him from doing that somehow."

"How?"

"I don't know, Sora. It's too early for this."

"What would you do? How would you stop him?"

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Me? Well, honestly, if this guy was really threatening people I cared about, I would kill him."

Sora's eyes widened. "How would you do  _that_?"

"Well, there are a lot of ways to kill a man. My personal specialty is with a blade."

"Like the ones on your walls?"

"Yeah. Those are...well, there was a time when my life depended on those things right there. They have served me well."

"You carried all of those? There are so many!"

"You can combine and lock them in a specific way to make one large sword. That's how I usually used them. Separated, though, they can all be used for different tasks."

"Woa!" Sora cried, eyes glowing with excitement. "You can turn all your little swords into a giant sword? That's so cool!"

Cloud chuckled, despite himself. He had always thought that was pretty cool, too.

"So you would just go up and stab him?"

"Well, no," Cloud amended. "I mean, I don't really know this enemy you're talking about, so it could be dangerous to face him head on if you don't know what he's capable of. The best way to take him out would be some kind of sneak attack. Get in quick and fast before he even notices you're there. Gives him less of a chance to fight back."

"Woa, so you really were a mercenary, weren't you?"

Cloud's expression turned rueful. "Yeah, I was." he said softly.

Sora chewed his eggs thoughtfully for moment. "So why did you stop being a mercenary, then? You didn't like it anymore? Were you bad at it?"

Cloud gave a humorless laugh. "No, I was definitely quite good at it. That wasn't the problem." He poked at his food with a frown.

"Then what was the problem?"

"It's complicated." Cloud sighed. "I just...got tired of it, I guess."

"Oh."

"So anyway, what's the other problem you need help with?"

"Okay, so I have this friend. And something really bad happened to him a while ago that hurt him a lot and made him really sad and stuff. So he...well he sort of hides and pretends he's something that he's not. And he doesn't ever talk to anybody except me. So I'm trying to help him get better so that he's not afraid to be himself, but...It's kind of taking a long time, you know? Cuz I thought he should heal at his own pace and everything, so I wasn't pushing him. And I thought that was fine, but then yesterday, someone else found out about my friend, and he said some things... And now I'm wondering if I'm doing the right thing after all. Like, maybe I should be more forceful or something. What do you think?"

Cloud frowned as he swallowed a bite, wondering if he had ever seen Sora look quite so self-doubting and vulnerable before. He wasn't sure he had.

"You think if you were more demanding it would force your friend to get better?" he asked.

"Maybe I'm being too soft on him and that's why he's still the way he is."

"And what way is that, exactly? How is he hiding?"

"Well...he's sort of in disguise, I guess. He makes himself look like something else so he doesn't have to act normal."

"What do you mean?"

Sora scrunched up his face, clearly conflicted. "I can't tell you. I promised him I wouldn't tell anybody. That was our deal when I first found out about him."

"A deal, huh?"

"I promised I would keep his secret if he promised he would try to get better. Except I kind of blabbed yesterday, but I figure that was different because Axel saw him out of his disguise before I said anything..." Sora frowned. "Gee, I hope he's not mad at me. It didn't really seem like he was, though."

"Well, even if he was mad, he probably got over it. It's impossible to stay mad at you for too long. I mean, I would really like to be mad at you for breaking into my apartment, but I'm not."

Sora chuckled mischievously.

"But that doesn't mean you can do it again!" Cloud barked. Sora was appropriately cowed by this and ate his eggs meekly. Cloud could see through it, though, and knew that Sora would probably try something like this again in the future. That rascal could get away with anything. And Cloud had only himself to blame, really.

"Anyway," Cloud sighed, "it's hard to say definitively what the best way for someone to heal is. It depends on the person and what happened to them. I've known a lot of people who have experienced terrible tragedies. Some people are able to push through it, and others never get over it. Some people want to sit and talk about their feelings, and others want to forget that those things ever happened."

"How do you know so many people who had tragedies?" Sora asked. Or, at least that's what Cloud thought he said, as Sora's mouth was stuffed with food and it came out as muffled gibberish.

"You see a lot of bad things when you work in assassination. Sometimes...well, sometimes you're the reason for those tragedies."

"Is that why you stopped, then? Because it made you sad?"

"I guess that's one way of putting it," Cloud said with a soft, hollow laugh. "Being a mercenary just...gets a little lonely after a while. I was tired of causing so much destruction and pain everywhere I went. I didn't want that to be my life anymore. So I stopped."

Sora made a thoughtful noise. Cloud shook his head, as if admonishing himself for getting into the topic more than he meant to.

"Anyway, if you really think your friend isn't getting any better with your style of help, maybe it would be best to push him a little more."

"Yeah?"

"Sure. Not too much, though, don't be too harsh. That could make things worse. Just try to gently nudge him out of his comfort zone a bit. Get him to try things that he hasn't done before. Maybe convince him to stop being in his disguise for a little bit each day, so he gets more comfortable with it. Things like that."

"You think that would work?" Sora asked with a hopeful smile.

"It might," Cloud shrugged. "It wouldn't hurt to try, I guess. But I'm not exactly an expert on this kind of thing, so don't take my word for it. Anyway, are you done with that?" he asked, gesturing to Sora's empty plate. Sora nodded. "Alright, it's after seven already, so go back to your place and get ready for work. I expect to see you in no more than forty five minutes. We have a lot of catching up to do since we missed yesterday."

"You got it, boss!"

Cloud rolled his eyes as he collected the dishes, and Sora bounced off to his apartment on the floor below.

It was then Cloud realized that he might have accidentally advised Sora to kill someone. His eyes widened at the realization, and he hoped fervently that this would not be the one time Sora actually listened to him.

 

* * *

 

It was about four o'clock when Sora finished his deliveries. He and Roxas agreed that the best course of action would be to talk to Riku about this curse business, so they headed up to the mansion. When they arrived, the same old butler from before scowled at them at the front gate and did not believe Sora when he told him he had urgent business with Riku. They were finally let in, however, after much use of Sora's trademark charm, and they rode off in search of the gloomy boy.

The old butler had told him to go to the back of the house and find a maid to take him to Riku, but Sora was pretty sure he remembered how to get to the room that Kairi said Riku spent all his time in. So he locked up his bike next to a bench and went in through the front door. They wandered in the direction Sora thought the room had been, opening doors here and there and surprising several maids.

When they finally discovered the right room, they found Riku sitting in a chair in front of what looked like a small toy train frozen in a block of ice on a table. He scowled when he saw them.

"What are you doing here? Who let you in?" Riku demanded.

"I feel like people have been asking me that all day," said Sora as he bounced toward Riku. " Roxas and I came to say hi!" He plopped down in a chair across from Riku and found himself shivering at the surprisingly low temperature in the room. Sora rubbed his arms a bit. He huffed out a puff of air and discovered he could see his breath. "Aren't you cold?"

"I'm wearing a jacket," Riku replied. And indeed, he was.

"Why is it so cold?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "I'm practicing my magic. Sometimes it gets cold."

"Ooh! You're doing magic? How exciting! Let's see it, then!"

Riku was caught between not wanting to do what Sora wanted him to and wanting to show off his powers to someone. After a moment of inner debate, he caved in to the latter desire. He hunched forward and his eyes lit up with excitement.

"Alright, watch this," he said. His hands hovered over the frozen toy train, and with a slight flex of his long, pale fingers, the block of ice splintered suddenly with a loud crack and crumbled into pieces, releasing the train from its cold prison. Sora and Roxas' eyes widened and Riku gave a self-satisfied smirk at their reaction. With another twist of his fingers, the broken bits of ice expanded and grew until they once again encompassed the train. The ice kept growing more and more until it rose about a foot in the air and had frozen most of the table, dripping in icicles where it had flowed over the edge.

"Woa!" Sora cried. "That was so awesome!”

"Yeah, I know," Riku gloated, chin in the air. He jumped up off the couch and rushed over to a nearby shelf. He returned to his seat with a candelabra in hand and set it on the table in a spot clear of ice, buzzing with excitement.

"Okay okay, now watch  _this_!" he said. Riku flicked his fingers and the candelabra was soon trapped in ice as well, this time in a large, perfectly even cube, all sides as smooth as glass. Sora cheered and Riku leaned back in his chair to admire his work proudly. Roxas jumped up on the table to examine the ice, pawing at the cube lightly.

"So you just sit around all day and freeze stuff?" Sora asked with a chuckle.

"Not  _all_  day. Just when I'm bored. Mr. Eraqus says I should practice, and it's kind of fun."

"Who's Mr. Eraqus?"

"He's my tutor. He teaches me magic and other subjects like math and history. I'm getting ready to go to the Academy next year and become a full-fledged mage, so he's preparing me."

"That sounds exciting," said Sora.

Riku shrugged and gave a noncommittal noise. "Maybe," he offered. "But currently it's just exceedingly boring. There's a lot of studying and essay-writing involved, and I have to memorize far too many historical dates."

"Yeah, I guess that would bore me, too." Sora poked at the peak of the small ice mountain covering the train, while Roxas picked his way carefully around the table, making sure not to slip. He circled the cube and started gnawing on one corner.

"Shoo!" Riku scolded, waving his arms.

"Roxas, don't eat magic ice." said Sora. Roxas glared at Riku before scampering into Sora's warm lap.

"So Sora," Riku sighed, "this has been great and all, but why exactly are you in my house? I told you I never wanted to see you again."

"You never said that!"

"No? Well, I definitely said it in my head."

"That doesn't count. But I have news! Roxas and I found out information about your curse!"

Riku groaned. "You don't have to do that. I don't need any help with my curse, okay? Leave it alone."

"But we know how to break it! Yesterday, my friend Axel—he's a mage, too! He took us to see the Nothing Man, so he could answer some of our questions—"

"You did what!" Riku shrieked, leaping forward in his seat. "You met with the Nothing Man? Are you crazy?"

"Axel said he knew a lot about curses, so we thought he could help," Sora shrugged.

"You could have died! That man is insane! Who in their right mind would  _willingly_  go to the Nothing Man?"

"Well, yeah, he did almost eat me and Roxas. But we got away, so it's fine."

Riku gaped at him, and Sora thought his face looked kind of like a fish, with his eyes all bugged out like that and his mouth hanging open.

"But he told us how to break your curse!" he added, hoping Riku would start being more excited.

But Riku only rolled his eyes. "I already know how to break the curse!" he said with an exasperated huff.

"You do?" Sora blinked, surprised.

"Yeah, it's called a  _book_ , dumb-ass. There are lots of books on curses. The Nothing Man wrote most of them, and people read them so they don't have to talk to him. Why did you pick the absolute most complicated and dangerous way to go about it?"

Sora cocked his head to one side in contemplation. "I don't know. It didn't occur to any of us to read a book."

Riku threw his hands up in the air with a frustrated noise and fell back into his seat. "I can't believe you are such an idiot! You are so lucky to be alive."

"But if you already knew how to break your curse, why haven't you done anything about it?" Sora frowned.

"Stop being dumb. The only way to break it is to have someone with a pure heart to fall in love with me and for me to love them back. That's obviously never going to happen. Even if people with pure hearts actually existed, there's no way we would  _fall in love_  or anything." He spat the word with disgust and gave a derisive laugh. "The cure sounds worse than the curse."

Sora slumped in his chair, disappointed.

"I guess you risked your life for nothing," Riku shrugged. "Next time, don't jump to the weirdest conclusion to answer a simple question."

"No, it wasn't a waste. We found out other important stuff, too! It turns out you have  _two_  curses on you!"

"What do you mean  _two_  curses? That can't be right. I would have felt it if I had another one."

"Those shadow monsters that chase you are part of the second curse. That's what the Nothing Man said. He said it was the same kind of curse that he had, where shadow monsters chase you and drain your spirit when they catch you." Sora started a rushed and rather confusing description of what he’d heard from the Nothing Man the day before while Riku’s frown grew deeper and more concerned.

"Okay, hold on! Let's...let's just say for a minute that I believe you—and I'm not completely sure I do, because this sounds kind of crazy. But  _if_  I believe that I have some other curse, how long do you think it would take for them to steal my soul completely?"

"I don't know. The Nothing Man said that the shadow monsters were chasing him for a long time, but when they started coming every night, that's when everything started. How often do they come after you?"

Riku cupped his chin in his hand as he thought about it. "Well, they don't come all that often, I guess. Except for the other day when we got away from them, the last time I saw them was maybe three weeks ago."

"That doesn't sound too bad! Maybe we have time to fix this!" 

"So, who did the Nothing Man say was responsible for all of this?"

But before he could answer, a brisk knock on the door interrupted him. All three of them jumped at the suddenness of it.

"Master Riku, are you within?" called a deep voice.

"Yes, you may enter."

The door opened, admitting an older man with dark, copper skin and amber eyes. He was thin and gamely and his posture hunched just slightly, dressed in a red tunic and a fine dark coat that reached his tall black boots. His bald head gleamed like a polished bowl and a tuft of coarse gray hair covered his chin, the only discernible hair anywhere on his head. His features were sharp, with cheek bones and brow ridge jutting out in drastic angles and ears that nearly came to a point at the tip.

"Ah, Master Xehanort, to what do I owe the pleasure," Riku drawled in a tone that made it clear that it was no pleasure at all. 

"I am here on an errand, My Lord," Xehanort answered smoothly. "It seems that our dear Mr. Eraqus has been expecting you for your lessons these past ten minutes at least. I thought I might save your tutor some trouble and so offered to come collect you myself."

"How very kind of you," Riku sneered. "I’m afraid I lost track of the time. I will be there in a moment, you do not need to wait for me. I'm sure you have far more important things to do than to escort me through my own house."

Xehanort's golden eyes slid to land on other occupants of the room, his gaze like cold tethers snaking around their skin. Sora and Roxas stiffened in their seats.

"I see you have guests. How unusual." His eyes narrowed at Sora's dirty clothes and messy hair, staring him down almost searchingly. His nose wrinkled as if he smelled something unpleasant. When he finally looked away, Sora found he could breath once more.

"Yes, and we are quite busy, actually," Riku said curtly.

"Of course you are. When is a teenage boy  _not_  busy, I dare ask? By all means, carry on with your companion. Do not let me disturb you." With that, Xehanort turned and left, closing the door softly behind him.

Riku let out a growl as soon as the man had left the room. "Gah, I hate him! Always bothering me for no reason!" He made another frustrated noise as he stood from his chair. "Anyway, I should get going. Mr. Eraqus gets mad if I'm late and gives me extra math problems. Come by tomorrow and we can talk about this curse some more."

"Wait! But Riku—" Sora called, but Riku's long legs had him out of the door in a moment. "Damn, he walks fast!"

"Oh my God! Sora!" Roxas breathed in shock. "That guy!"

"Yeah, I know! He had no eyebrows! What the heck!"

"What? No! That's the guy who controls the shadow monsters!"

"Well  _obviously_. I mean, how many guys do you know running around with the name Xehanort? The important thing is that he had no eyebrows! When have you ever seen  _that_  before, huh?"

"You have a point. It did look weird. But I suppose you can't expect a man who eats souls and goes around destroying people's lives to look normal."

"I wonder if his evil-ness caused his lack of hair or if his lack of hair caused his evil-ness."

"Who said it had to be one or the other?"

"If it's true, that means you're extra good, Roxas, since you're covered in hair!"

"Well then it's  _definitely_  not true," Roxas snorted with a roll of his eyes.

With that, they wandered back to the bike and rode home.


	6. The Spies and the Soldiers

Late afternoon the next day found Sora and Roxas back at the Jenova mansion, attempting and failing to persuade the gate-man to let them inside. The old, round-bellied man gave them his usual steely, suspicious glare, determined not to let them through.

"Why you gotta be so mean, Old Gate Guy? Riku told me to come back today! He's waiting for me. What am I supposed to do if you don't let me through? The fate of the city depends on my meeting with Riku!" Sora scowled.

The gate-man raised a skeptical bush of an eyebrow, unimpressed. "I have worked here for over fifteen years, and never once has Master Riku willingly requested someone visit him. So you will forgive me if I do not believe you," he sniffed.

"I will  _not_  forgive you! Unforgivable!" Sora shouted, fists thrust in the air. "I demand to be let through!”

"I have been specifically instructed to keep you out. Several maids informed me that you were wandering the grounds yesterday afternoon like a common vagabond. This is a well-respected estate, not an amusement park. You may not simply come and go as you please."

“Just go ask Riku, he’ll tell you I’m his friend.”

"Sir, you are causing a disturbance. I am going to have to ask you to leave."

"No! I shall not be moved! The people demand friendship!" Sora shouted. But he stopped short when he felt Roxas pawing at his leg. When he had Sora's attention, Roxas jerked his head to the side, indicating for Sora to follow him, and stalked off away from the mansion. Sora turned back to his foe with a scowl.

"Alright Old Gate Guy, you may have won this time, but don't think you can stifle the will of the people so easily! Friendship will prevail even under your oppressive hand!" And with that final declaration, Sora grabbed his bike and followed after the cat, grumbling under his breath.

Down the road a bit, out of sight and ear-shot of the man at the gate, Roxas paused.

"Alright, here is good," he said, looking around suspiciously.

"Good for what?" Sora blinked.

"Good for sneaking in, duh. If that man won't let us through, let's just find another way in."

Sora gasped. "Defying the man! You're such a radical!"

"Tch, whatever. Just look for some kind of hole in the fence or a tree we can climb."

Sora gave an enthusiastic whoop and started off into the bushes with his bike. They trampled through the hedges, searching for a way in, but the fence proved quite formidable. The tall, sturdy iron bars mocked their attempts to climb or squeeze through. While Roxas could easily slip under the bars, the human-sized Sora was not so fortunate. They made their way slowly around the perimeter of the estate, ducking down into the bushes every now and then when they thought they saw or heard someone nearby, but for the most part, they were undisturbed.

They eventually came across what appeared to be a large hole in the fence. Several of the iron bars had been shattered in some way with edges rough and jagged. There was space enough for a person to fit through, yet small enough to remain undetected behind the hedges.

"Hee hee, lucky!" Sora grinned.

"I wonder what made this," Roxas frowned as he sniffed the edge of the broken bars cautiously.

"Who cares? Let's go!" Sora locked his bike to the undamaged part of the fence and ducked through.

"I can't believe we really found a hole," Roxas said as he slipped underneath the fence.

"You're the one who suggested we find one in the first place."

"I know, but I didn't really expect to find a perfect hole like this. What are the odds?" But Sora had never been very good at statistics, so he had no answer.

They made their way to the mansion and entered through the front door. Finding Riku's room was much easier this time around, but when they arrived, he was nowhere to be found.

"I guess our luck has run out for now," Sora shrugged. "What should we do?"

"We could just wander around until we find him," said Roxas.

And that's exactly what they did. They made their way back to the ground floor near the rear of the house where Roxas heard people talking. They peered inside any unlocked door they found, but Riku wasn't in any of them.

Then, a door handle Sora had been reaching for turned on its own and the door opened inward abruptly. A pile of folded blankets with legs stepped out of the room and crashed into Sora before he had time to get out of the way. The pile let out a startled 'eep' and stumbled backwards. The topmost blankets tumbled to the floor, and in their place was Kairi's face, wearing a startled expression.

"Ak! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there! Are you— _Sora_?" she stammered.

"Yes, I am Sora."

"What? No, that's not what I meant. I'm just surprised to see you here again. What are you doing going around crashing into people and making them drop things?"

"Ah, sorry. I didn't expect a pile of blankets to run out of the door, though." He stooped to pick up the fallen blankets while Kairi set down her load. "I was looking for Riku. We have an important meeting but I can't find him." He folded up the blankets and handed them to Kairi, who refolded them and set them on top of the others. The room behind them appeared to be the laundry room, and Sora could see at least one other woman standing at a large basin scrubbing at some kind of fabric.

"Riku, huh? I think he's in his lessons with his tutor right now."

"Boo. Do you know when he'll be done?"

"Probably about an hour or so." Kairi's face lit up suddenly as an idea struck her. "Hey, why don't you wait with me? We still have to make plans about spying on Namine, don't we?"

"Oh, that's right, the mystery girl! Yes, that is absolutely important."

"Excellent. Here, take some of these blankets so they don't fall again. Just follow me, we'll drop them off and then get to planning." Sora received half of the blankets, and he and Roxas followed Kairi down the hall.

They delivered blankets to several grand rooms which apparently belonged to the Jenova nobles, though there was no sign of them in person. Kairi spread the blankets on each massive bed and tucked their edges underneath the mattresses with the precise effectiveness that comes with repetitive practice of monotonous tasks.

Once finished, they headed to the servant's quarters in the back of the house. Kairi's room was small and plain, with three identical beds and dressers which fit as neatly as puzzle pieces in the cramped space. On one of these beds sat a brown-haired girl in a sunshine-yellow dress and maid's apron fussing with her hair in front of a mirror, her face scrunched up and tongue stuck out to one side in concentration. She looked up as they entered, smiling a greeting to Kairi before giving a surprised look to the boy who followed her inside.

"Eh, Kairi, what's this? Since when do you bring cute boyfriends back to your room? You really should have warned me," she said with a sly grin and an impish twinkle in her eye. She gave up whatever she was attempting with her hair and it promptly fell down to her shoulders, thin and straight with a flip at the end like an umbrella's handle.

"Oh hush, you," Kairi scolded. "This is my friend Sora. Sora, this is Selphie. Don't listen to anything she says, it'll turn your brain to mush."

"How rude," Selphie pouted, arms folded and nose in the air. "Mush is gross. Your brain would turn into something more cute, like rainbows."

Kairi gave Sora a look of long-suffering. "My point, exactly," she said flatly.

Selphie only giggled and Sora gave her a grin. Kairi sat on one of the beds and indicated for Sora to sit next to her. Roxas jumped up beside them and walked around the bed with his paws splayed wide as they sunk into the soft blankets under him.

"Oh a kitty!" Selphie squealed and jumped up. "He's sooo precious I just want to eat him up!"

Roxas snapped his ears back defensively and hissed. But while Roxas was fast, Selphie was faster, and before he was knew what was happening, Roxas found himself in her arms, held like a baby. Selphie cooed and squeezed and swung him around, and though hestruggled with all his might, Selphie was definitely stronger than she seemed.

"You probably shouldn't hug him like that," Sora warned. "His claws are sharp and he likes to bite."

"But he's my baby and I love him!"

Roxas finally managed to fling himself hard enough so that she lost some of her grip on him, and after a few dangerous flashes of his claws, she dropped him with a squeak. The moment his feet touched the floor, he scampered under one of the beds.

"No! Love me!" Selphie cried after him.

"Knock it off," snapped Kairi. "We've got serious business to discuss."

"Eh? What business? I don't have business."

"Sora and I are making plans to figure out what Namine is up to."

"That again, huh? Just let it go, will you? Namine is perfectly nice, she's not up to anything. You just have an overactive imagination."

" _I_  have an overactive imagination? Who's the one always planning a wedding with General Leonhart, huh?" Kairi gave a pointed raise of her eyebrow.

"Hmph, proves how much  _you_  know! I'm through with that rascal. He's too boring. It's all about Captain Irvine, now. Yesterday he  _smiled_  at me!" Selphie's eyes glittered with daydreams.

"You have never met either of them!" Kairi cried, exasperated.

Selphie shrugged. "That doesn't matter. They'll fall in love with me, you'll see. And besides, I never said I didn't have an overactive imagination. I just said that you also did."

"I can actually  _feel_  my brain turning to mush," Kairi gasped in wonder.

"Rainbows!" insisted Selphie.

"Whatever. So are you going to leave or not? If you don't want to participate, we don't need you bothering us."

"Hey, this is my room, too. I can be here if I want. Besides, I can't just leave you in your room alone with a boy. Such scandal! I should be your chaperone or something." She grinned.

"It's not like that! We're just scheming!" Kairi scowled. A faint blush appeared at her cheeks.

"I don't mind if she stays," said Sora. "If this is her room, it seems mean to kick her out."

With two against one, Kairi was forced to relent. "Fine, you can stay," she said. "Just don't disrupt us or anything."

"Oh don't mind me, I'll just sit here nice and quietly, not saying anything. You won't even notice me! And if you two want to declare your love for each other, that's fine, too! Just go ahead! I don't mind! It'll be so romantic!" Selphie sighed dreamily.

"Get your head out of the clouds! No one is going to do anything like that! Do you have any paper?"

"Why, yes I do!" Selphie rummaged through one of the dressers, producing a thin stack of loose papers. "It's perfect for love notes!"

"It's not for love notes!" Kairi barked as she took the pile. "Thanks for the paper."

"What are roommates for if not to annoy and then ask for things? Speaking of which, can you help me with my hair? It never stays in the bun and Mrs. Potts got mad at me for having messy hair this morning. You and Olette always do it so well, but mine always falls out."

"Eh, you might not be using enough pins. Here, let me see." Kairi moved to sit behind Selphie on her bed, tucking her legs underneath her comfortably. "Hey Sora, hand me that little blue box on the dresser there."

He found the box, apparently filled with an assortment of hair ties and pins, and handed it to the girls on the bed. Tools in hand, Kairi set to work tucking, twisting and pinning Selphie's hair in precise and complex arrangements.

"Sheesh, looks complicated," Sora commented.

"I can do you next, if you want," Kairi offered with a dangerous smile.

Selphie's face lit up with an equally evil expression. "Think of all the bows we could tie in his hair!"

"No. No bows," Sora stated firmly. "A man must have his pride."

"Don't let gender roles confine you so much. You should be able to express yourself regardless of social norms," Kairi chided with a grin.

"You can be proud of your bows!" Selphie added.

"I am here for scheming, not for a makeover," he insisted.

"Fine fine. Let's get scheming, then. I can multitask," Kairi said as she continued fussing with Selphie's hair. "Get the paper. There's a pen and inkwell on the dresser.

"First things first, we should write down all the instances of weird things that I’ve noticed about Namine. Then, once we have all the information, we come up with a plan."

"Okay, I'm ready," said Sora, inkwell out and pen poised over the paper. "What are the weird things?"

"Well first of all, like I told you before, I get this weird feeling from her, the kind I get from people who are lying. Gray and murky. But she doesn't have to actually say anything that could be a lie for me to feel it. She can just walk in a room and I feel like she's lying already. And I'm not really sure what that means. It's never happened to me before."

"Maybe she's always lying? Like one of those people who just lie all the time and can't help it," Sora offered.

"A compulsive liar? Maybe. But sometimes I feel it when she hasn't even said anything."

"Maybe she's lying to  _herself_!" cried Selphie. "Like, she's in love with someone but pretending she's not. Or maybe she has a terrible secret that's just eating away at her. Maybe she killed someone! And no one ever found her out!"

Kairi gave a tug on Selphie's hair. "If you're going to turn this into a joke, then we don't need you. Just be quiet while I do your hair. And keep still."

"Hey, I was just trying to help, no need to get sassy."

"Whatever, just tone it down. And hand me that bobby-pin."

"I think she has a point," said Sora. "Maybe you feel like she's always lying because she had one great big lie that she always thinks about."

"Don't twist Selphie's words so that they make sense."

"Hey, I like him!" Selphie laughed.

"So what other weird things has she done?" asked Sora.

Kairi paused in thought. "Well, she's worked here for years, but no one knows her at all. And she never talks to anyone. I mean, if you've worked somewhere long enough and you live with the same people, you eventually get to know them at least a  _little_. It's weird that no one knows her."

"Maybe she's just a private person," Selphie said.

"But how can a person be  _that_  private? I mean, what do we know about her, really?"

"Well..." Selphie began thoughtfully, "I know that she likes to draw. I've seen her drawing before. And I know she always says no when I ask if she wants to come into town with us. And she always seems very tired."

"Memory-wise, though. Try to think back to more distant memories, over a year at least."

"Um...I remember her doing chores, I guess, but I don't think I ever really thought to talk to her until just recently. She's always been very quiet."

"But that's weird, right? Since you've always gone up and talked to everyone who has ever worked here. You know almost everyone's life story except for her!" Kairi exclaimed.

"It's true, I am quite nosy. Charmingly so, of course."

"Of course," Sora agreed.

"When I think back to my memories of her...they just feel kind of funny," said Kairi. "And that's another thing, too! My memories of her are weird. Like they're fuzzy and unclear, but not the way normal memories are. They give me a weird feeling, like there's something wrong about the memories I have of her."

"And I keep telling you, Kairi, that doesn't make sense! How can something be wrong about a memory?" Selphie argued.

"I don't care if it doesn't make sense to you. Something is wrong about it."

"Hm, weird memories, got it," Sora said as he scribbled on the paper. "That sounds like a tough one, I have no idea what that would be about."

"Also, sometimes Namine acts like she doesn't know her way around," Kairi continued. "She gets lost sometimes in the house or makes mistakes that only recently hired maids would ever make. She doesn't act like a maid who has worked here for years at all. The other day, she delivered Master Yazoo's shirts to Master Loz. Lumiere was half-way through dressing Master Loz when he realized why the shirt wouldn't fit—it was three sizes too small! I mean, how can you mistake those two?"

"So she's a bad maid, so what? We've all made mistakes."

"Not like that, not if you've been working here for years."

"So what exactly are you suggesting?"

"I'm not sure! That's why we have to investigate!"

"Okay, here's what I have so far," Sora announced, reading off the paper. "Always lying about something mysterious, mysteriously private, mysterious weird memories, mysteriously bad at being a maid."

"I think there's something mysterious about your word choices," said Kairi.

Sora shrugged. "It is what it is."

She gave a snort. "Alright, Selphie, I finished your hair. This should hold through a wind storm."

Selphie cheered and jumped up from the bed to admire herself in the mirror. The bun was perfectly round and even, without a hair out of place. "Ah it's so great! Now I'm all fancy and stuff!" She turned her head in various poses to see every angle she could. "Thank you thank you  _thank_  you! You really have to teach me how to do this sometime."

"Sure, sure," Kairi said with a wave of her hand. "But right now we have to get back to business."

"Is it time to spy?" Sora asked eagerly.

"I believe it is!" she declared.

"Ooh, you never said you were spying! I want to spy too!" Selphie cried.

"You can come with us, but you have to stay quiet."

"I promise! Cross my bun and hope to die!"

And so they set out, with Roxas trailing a safe distance from Selphie's grabby hands, to the dining room where Namine was scheduled to be cleaning, according to the assignment of house duties for that day. The doors to the dining room were wide open when they arrived, so they hid behind the door frame and peered cautiously inside.

The dining room was as large and ornate as the rest of the mansion, with walls decorated in extravagant paintings and embellished with silver trimming. A large, gleaming wooden table in the center ran most of the length of the room, covered in unlit candelabras and a colorful flower centerpiece. The room was empty but for a young maid dusting the fireplace mantle. She was a small girl, as thin and fragile as a paper doll, with skin nearly as pale as the marble she was cleaning. She seemed to be struggling somewhat with her dusting task, and a number of small dirt sprites could be seen scurrying around her in a frenzy, avoiding her feather duster with ease. Several strands of her blonde hair had fallen loose from her maid's cap and she huffed with frustration.

"Stop it, you!" she was muttering at the dirt sprites, cheeks flushed. "Just get out of here, I'm trying to clean!”

But the dirt sprites ignored her pleas and continued scuttling about the mantle. Several dropped to the floor and began circling her feet, as if to make her trip. Fed up, she crushed one with a vehement stomp. Its comrades froze when she lifted her foot to reveal its dust remains, and she smiled in grim success. But then, much to the maid's horror, the dust quivered and reformed into several smaller sprites. All the sprites rejoiced, sensing their enemy's imminent defeat, and their wild frenzy only grew.

"Rookie mistake," Kairi scoffed quietly from their hiding place. "Namine should know better than to show them fear, she's losing control of the situation completely. Where's her polishing spray? That's all she needs to get rid of them."

"So that's Namine, huh?" Sora whispered, watching as the girl began wielding her duster like a sword against the dirt sprites.

Selphie nodded the affirmative. "That's her, alright. Skinny ankles and all. She's like a hummingbird, so small and delicate. Every time I look at her, I just want to bring her hot cocoa or something."

Sora nodded in interest and jotted down 'hot cocoa' into the notes.

"So what are we going to do now?" he asked. "Just stay here and watch her?"

"Yeah, I guess. When she leaves, we'll follow and see if she does anything suspicious," said Kairi.

"I feel bad, maybe we should help her."

"Don't be stupid, Selphie, if we help her, our mission will be compromised," Kairi said.

"Huh?" Selphie frowned. "I didn't say anything."

"Yeah, she didn't say anything. That was me."

Kairi, Sora, and Selphie blinked for the half-second it took them to realize that the voice hadn't belonged to any of them. They turned to find Olette crouched next to them, who smiled and waved a hand in greeting.

"Hi," she chirped.

Kairi, Sora, and Selphie shrieked in surprise at her sudden appearance, and Olette shrieked in surprise at their shrieking. Kairi recovered first and clamped her hands over Sora and Selphie's mouths.

"Shh! You guys she'll hear us," she hissed.

They quieted instantly, holding their breath as they looked back into the room. Namine appeared not to have noticed them, absorbed as she was with the dirt sprites, who were now attempting to knock things off every table in the room. Namine rushed back and forth trying to catch everything they dropped, her arms now full of vases and a candles. She gasped when she saw them aiming for a highly breakable tea set at the other end of the room.

In their hiding spot, Kairi, Sora, and Selphie let loose a sigh of relief.

"Olette, what are you doing here?" Kairi whispered.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," she answered, lowering her voice without knowing why. "I was just walking by and I saw you all huddled here. Hi Sora, nice to see you again."

Sora smiled and waved hello. "We're spying on Namine," he answered. "Kairi says she's suspicious."

"This again, Kairi? I thought we decided she was fine."

" _You_  decided," Kairi argued. "I still think something is weird about her."

"Do you want to spy with us?" Sora asked.

"Sounds fun," Olette smiled.

She settled next to them and they all peered into the dining room at Namine. The girl had somehow caught the tea set perfectly on a tray, but she was overloaded with things and her balance wavered dangerously. They watched as she rushed to set everything down on the table while the sprites, who had multiplied into small dirt army, scurried toward her in a wave. She yelped as they reached her, kicking her feet to fling away the ones who had crawled on her shoes.

"Where's her polish spray?" Olette asked.

"We don't know," said Selphie. "This is so sad to watch, but I just can't look away." The group nodded in agreement.

After a few minutes of an intense battle, Namine eventually found her polish spray, grinning in victory as an attack finally managed to work. Realizing that she had suddenly become stronger, the dirt sprites began to flee, and Namine chased them down, wielding the spray bottle in one hand and the duster in the other. Once they had all been successfully scrubbed away, she stood panting, her face twisted into a wicked smile, wild with triumph. After a moment, she collected herself, tucked her hair away, and straightened her rumpled gray dress before wiping down the table and arranging the silverware.

"That was so awesome."

"I woulda' paid good money t'watch that."

The group hiding behind the door blinked again as they registered two new voices. They all shrieked unison.

Two teenage boys had joined their group without their noticing. One was slightly on the plump side in a huggable way, wearing a footman's neat coattails and slacks. Warm brown eyes and an almost button-like nose were set in a round face and his thick dark hair was slicked back with the help of a rather fragrant pomade. The second was all lean muscle, dressed in a loose green shirt and leather vest over breeches and muddy boots. His skin was bronze-tan and his face lightly sunburnt, suggesting long hours spent outdoors, while his hazel eyes and sharp mouth had a cocky glint, suggesting something snarky on the tip of his tongue. His hair was a mess of straw-colored curls which seemed to be breaking free from an earnest attempt to smooth them back.

"Pence! Hayner! What the heck are you guys doing here?" hissed Kairi.

"You scared us half to death!" Selphie added breathlessly.

"Awful sorry, but a guy can't help being so handsome that he gives ladies a shock," the blond boy said with an arrogant smirk.

"Oh shut it, Hayner," spat Kairi. "If anything, we were shocked by how disgusting you are. What are you doing tramping around here in those muddy boots? You're getting dirt everywhere."

"Well, yer welcome ta clean 'em off if you want," the boy said slyly.

Kairi gave him a particularly ugly snarl of a look.

"We're really sorry we scared you!" said the second boy plaintively. "We thought you knew we were there."

"Don't worry about it," Olette laughed. "They did the same thing to me when I accidentally snuck up on them."

"Hi I'm Sora!" Sora butted in. He offered the two boys a sunshine smile.

"Hello, I'm Pence," said the dark-haired boy pleasantly. "I'm an assistant footman. And this rouge here is Hayner, he's a stable hand. I don't think I've seen you around before, are you new? What's your position?"

"No, I don't work here. I'm Kairi's friend. We're spying on Namine."

Hayner gave him an odd frown. "Kairi's  _friend_ , huh? Well it's great Kairi's got a social life 'n all, but this ain't really the place to come hang out, y'know."

"Come off it, Hayner.  _You_  bring people around the stable all the time," defended Selphie.

Back in the dining room, Namine paused in her cleaning and looked up. "Is someone there?" she called.

The group by the door froze, their eyes wide in fear of discovery. They pressed themselves against the wall as flat as they could, as if doing so would prevent them from being seen, should Namine come out of the room and investigate. They all held their breath, wondering how exactly they would explain what they were doing.

"Oh? What are you doing there? I  _thought_  I heard somebody," said Namine. Kairi was moments away letting out the string of apologies on her tongue when she heard Namine continue: "What an adorable cat. Were you the one making all that noise? How on earth did you get in here?"

"Oh no, the cat!" Selphie gasped.

They chanced a look inside and saw Roxas standing in the middle of the dining room, allowing Namine to scratch his chin and coo over him.

"Ah, excellent work, Roxas, distracting the suspect with your cuteness power," muttered Sora. "A brave comrade indeed."

"You guys, she's coming this way," Pence warned quietly. And indeed, she had stood up from petting Roxas and was walking toward the door. They scrambled away and hid behind a corner.

Namine walked through the doorway, Roxas trotting behind her. She looked around with a slight frown, as if sensing the six pairs of eyes watching her closely. But she shrugged to herself and moved on down the hall away from where they were hidden.

"Let's follow her," Kairi whispered when Namine had turned a corner.

They followed after her in a line, making their way as quietly as they could, but when they rounded the bend Namine had disappeared behind, she was nowhere to be seen. They had reached the main entryway of the mansion, but instead of the little blonde maid, they found several soldiers in full uniform arguing loudly, both with each other and with a fat butler sporting a pencil mustache. The group immediately huddled back around the corner, peering discretely into the hall at the men.

"I don't care  _where_  he is or  _what_  he is doing, I need to speak with him  _now_!" a tall man with a shaggy mane of shoulder-length brown hair was snarling at the butler. The scene rather resembled a lion arguing with a rabbit, and the butler seemed in danger of being eaten.

" _Do_  calm down, General,” tried the butler, hands raised defensively. “He is in an extremely important meeting with his adviser at the moment, but I will inform him you are here—"

"Don't tell me to calm down, you rotted peach! This is a  _state emergency_ , and if I don't talk to Sephiroth in the next ten  _seconds_ , I will personally  _gut you like a fish!_ "

The butler gulped noticeably. He gave the General a stiff nod and said through clenched teeth "I will do my best to fetch him, sir," before hurrying up the stairs, tail between his legs.

"God, what an absolute  _idiot!_ " the General growled. He looked just about ready to breath fire, with his fists clenched and his broad shoulders rigid.

"Go easy on him, Leonhart. He's just trying to do his job," argued a blond soldier with a facial tattoo over his eye standing next to him. "Lord Sephiroth probably told him not to let anybody disturb him. If Lord Sephiroth told  _me_  not to let anybody bother him, I'd try to stop a stampede."

"Well  _I'm_  just trying to save our city from war and complete ruin, so  _excuse_  me if I have little patience with people standing in my way!"

"Quit shouting at me like this is all my fault, will ya?" said the blond soldier.

"Well how do I know it isn't? I don't know what the fuck is going on and everyone is off in some fucking meeting! And where the  _hell_  is Aqua? Didn't I send someone to get her? You! Go find Aqua and bring her here, dammit!" he snapped at a third man. "And if anyone tells you she's  _busy_  for whatever the fuck reason, shove a bayonet up their ass." The soldier scurried off to do as he was told.

"Oh my God, it's General Leonhart! He's so dreamy!" Selphie sighed, hands clasped together and stars in her eyes.

"I thought you were over him," Kairi teased quietly.

"Yeah, but just  _look_  at him! He's so hot when he's all worked up about something."

"Whatever, I don't see what's so great about him," Hayner muttered, only to be promptly shushed by all three girls.

"I think we might not be the only spies in this room," Pence whispered. He indicated a pillar near the edge of the room where, sure enough, Namine was hidden in the shadows with Roxas at her feet. She was watching the group of soldiers intently.

"So she's spying on soldiers. That's extremely suspicious," said Kairi.

"Technically, we're spying on soldiers, too," said Olette. Kairi frowned at her, but Olette only shrugged.

Another tall blond soldier strode into the hall, and the group of soldiers along with both groups of spies looked up.

"What's up, Chicken-wuss," he said. "I thought I heard you yelling."

"Shut up, Almasy. If you don't have anything to tell me about the Mi'ihen attack, I don't want to hear another word out of you," General Leonhart snarled.

"Woa there, tiger. You're all kinds of feisty today."

"Three Alexandrian citizens are  _dead_ , this is not some kind of joke. I need to find out what the hell our soldiers were doing on Mi'ihen road and why they attacked and killed unarmed Alexandrian citizens. Who  _knows_  what Brahne will do—this is  _exactly_ the kind of thing to incite her to launch an attack on us."

"You're not gonna get anywhere shouting your ugly head off. Have you talked to Aqua yet? What does she say?"

"No, I have  _not_  talked to her yet. I've sent maybe ten people to go find her.  _And_  Terra, Auron and Xemnas, but every fucking person I need has decided to play hookie or something, so all I have is  _you_."

"Don't worry, they're probably just taking a piss or something. Calm your tits and let's set up the meeting room. It'll give us something to do."

"You can do that," Leonhart said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm going to wait for Sephiroth."

"Suit yourself," Almasy said with a shrug. He and the rest of the soldiers walked off, leaving General Leonhart alone in the entryway.

Well, nearly alone, at least.

"Hi there!" chirped Sora.

General Leonhart looked up, startled to find a boy suddenly at his elbow.

"Can I help you?" he asked uncertainly. The boy was looking at him intently with wide blue eyes, and Leonhart found it more than a little unnerving.

Back in the shadows, the spies were all gasping in terror, wondering how Sora had managed to slip by without their noticing. Did he have a death with, approaching that man? Surely the General would rip his head off with the state he was in.

"You're General Leonhart, right? Squall Leonhart?" Sora asked. Up close, Sora could see the man had narrow eyes the color of rain, thin lips pulled into a tight frown, and sharp, chiseled features. His overall menacing look was enhanced by a severe scar running from above his right eye, across the bridge of his nose, to the cheek below his left eye. Sora thought he remembered seeing him in the military parade.

"I am. Who's asking?"

"I'm Sora. Hey, do you know a guy named Cloud Strife?"

Squall Leonhart gave a start. Out of all the potential things he had been expecting the kid to say, nothing could have prepared him for that particular question.

"Excuse me?" he asked, face frozen in an expression that could almost be surprise.

"Cloud Strife. Do you know him? Blond, not that tall, frowns a lot. Because Tifa said that Cloud knew someone named Squall a long time ago, and Zack thought it might be you."

"I...How—how do you know Cloud?" Squall Leonhart's face tightened into a stony frown.

"I work for him at his delivery shop."

"His  _what_?"

"His delivery shop," Sora repeated. "We deliver stuff to people. Well,  _I_  do most of the delivering, and he does the more business-y part. So you know him, then?"

"I...well I used to. I mean, it's been years, so I don't really—Wait, you mean Cloud is  _here_? He's in Nomura? And he has...a delivery shop?"

"Yeah."

"Cloud. Cloud  _Strife_  is currently living in Nomura as a  _shopkeeper_?"

"Yeah, I just said that. Are you deaf or something?"

"What? Am I—no I'm not  _deaf_. Listen kid, I'm a very busy man in the middle of a crisis situation. I do not have time to answer all of your bizarre questions. What do you mean, coming up to me, just walking up out of nowhere, asking questions about Cloud-fucking-Strife. What the hell do you  _want_?"

Sora shrugged and slipped his hands in his back pockets idly. "I was just wondering if you were really they guy Cloud was in love with. That's all."

" _What_? If I was  _what_?"

"You  _are_  deaf, aren't you?" His mouth spread into a toothy, rather shit-eating grin.

"You little— _what_? I—He  _what_?" the man stammered. And it was quite a sight to see this proud, powerful man completely at a loss for words.

"You're kind of funny," Sora laughed, rocking back on his heels.

"Wh—Where the hell do you get these things, huh? As if Strife would ever own a delivery shop, let alone hire a punk like you. And you say he was in  _love_  with me? What? I mean, that's just—you're just—I don't even know where to start with that one. Who's putting you up to this?" 

At that moment, the front doors of the mansion burst open with a flurry, and a group of officers in mage army uniforms rushed in. At their head was a lean woman with a bob of blue hair. Sharp eyes belied her otherwise soft features and her face was set with grim severity.

"Leonhart, we've got some serious damage control to do," the woman said. "If we're not careful, we could have a bloody war on our hands."

"You don't have to tell  _me_  twice," Leonhart snapped. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"Well, now I'm here." She and the soldiers stopped when they reached where Sora and Leonhart were standing. She gave Sora a stern, assessing look. "Can I help you?" she asked him.

"Nope," Sora said cheerfully. He gave Leonhart one last cheeky grin before turning sharply on his heel and wandering away.

"Let's go, Leonhart, they're waiting for us in the meeting room." She and her group marched off in the direction Almasy and the other soldiers had gone, as briskly as buzzing bees.

"I  _know_  they are," Leonhart muttered under his breath, wondering how exactly he had become the late one in this situation. He looked back to Sora's retreating figure, lips parted slightly as if he meant to call after him. But he seemed to think better of it and shook his head before following after the soldiers.

Back in the shadows, the group of spies was gaping open-mouthed at Sora.

"What the hell!" Hayner finally broke the silence, his eyes wide and the sunburn bright on his cheeks. "You missin' a few screws in that brain o' yours? What were you thinkin'? Ya can't jus' talk to army generals like they's some regular folk!"

"Why not?" 

"'Cause...well, he's a general! And you're...not." Hayner choked out, fumbling for words. There was  _definitely_  a reason common people could not simply start a chat with the lead general of the Nomura army, but he couldn't quite think of what it was. He looked around at the others pleadingly, hoping they could back him up, but no one else could come up with a good answer, either. "Ya jus' can't do sompin like that. You're nuts."

"I had a question I wanted to ask him," Sora said, as if it really was as simple as that.

Roxas trotted over and rubbed his side leisurely on Sora's leg. He bent to scratch the cat's back and looked over to the spot where Namine had been standing.

"Our suspect has disappeared," he noticed.

"Eh? Crap! Where did she go?" said Kairi, looking wildly around the room. But Namine had vanished once again.

"Whatever, who cares what she's doin'. I'm not spendin' my time sneakin' round. Let's do sompin fun," Hayner said, stretching his arms over his head leisurely.

"Spying was pretty fun," said Selphie.

"I felt like a detective," agreed Olette. 

"Don't you guys have work to do?" Kairi wondered.

"Don't  _you_?" Hayner shot back.

"Maybe," Kairi gave a vague shrug. "But we have a mystery to solve."

"Should we go find her, then? Roxas probably knows where she went," said Sora.

"Well, maybe we could stop for now. Our investigation has yielded some interesting results."

"Has it?" asked Olette.

"Indeed it has. Sora, let me see the notes you were taking." He handed her the paper and she looked it over with a frown. "This is entirely illegible," she concluded. "There's no way I can read this."

"Oh, give it to Pence," said Olette. "He's great at figuring out messy handwriting."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Pence said with an embarrassed blush.

"Nonsense! I've seen you work wonders with those notes Master Kadaj gives you. And  _his_  writing is like scribble."

With a bashful smile, Pence accepted the page of Sora's notes about their spy investigation. Kairi and Selphie gave Olette a pointed look, which she ignored. Pence squinted and turned the page several different directions before finding what seemed to be the right one. He held the paper up to his nose, then pulled it away as far as his arm would allow, then back to his nose. After a few moments of his close examination, he spoke up.

"Okay, so the first part is some kind of list. The word 'mysterious' is used a lot. Then there's the word 'battle' next to what appears to be a doodle of dust sprites with spears. There are speech bubbles, but I can't figure them out. And there's something written here that might be 'hot-cocoa' next to a smiley face. I can't really make out the rest of it, but I think this is the word 'polish' next to either a question mark or a figure eight."

"Y'know, if Sora's the one who wrote it, I'm sure he can tell us what it says," Hayner said, bored and tetchy.

Pence blushed again, finding the show of his talents to have been a waste.

"No, that's basically what it says," said Sora with an approving nod. "It's a question mark, though, not a figure eight."

"I thought so. I was trying to take context into consideration."

"And at the bottom, it says 'the spy-ee has become the spy-er,'" Sora clarified.

"Really? So that was an 's' after all!"

"You could be a code breaker, Pence," Olette cheered, laughing softly.

Pence swelled with pride.

"Alright alright, let's do sompin else, now. I'm bored," Hayner insisted.

"Do you think Riku might be done with his lessons yet?" Sora asked anyone.

"He is," answered Pence. "I definitely saw him on his way to the small library before I ran into you all."

With that information, Sora said his prompt goodbyes, promising to see them again soon, and went off with Roxas in search of his friend.


	7. The Memory Witch

Riku was not all that surprised when Sora and his yellow cat burst through the door to his library, but he put on a perfunctory frown just the same.

"Yo!" Sora called.

He bounded over to where Riku was lounging, feet-up on the couch reading a book, and threw himself into an armchair across from him with a _thwump._ Roxas settled down in a particularly cushioned chair in the far corner of the room and proceeded to nap. Riku remained lounging casually, though he knew, if he were to witness this, his uncle would have lectured him about how a respectable noble should act in front of guests and ordered him to sit up politely. Riku didn't do polite, though. He found such things tedious and detestable. Sora didn't seem to notice the insult.

"Whacha readin'?" he asked, nodding to the book in Riku's hands.

"Nothing your simple mind would be able to understand, I'm sure," Riku drawled as he turned the page.

"Is it about tran-sen-dental-ism?" Sora asked, pronouncing the word slowly and deliberately. "Because I can never understand what the heck that stuff is about. Aerith is always trying to explain it to me, but I just don't get it."

Riku raised an eyebrow at him, and the corner of his mouth curved traitorously into a half-smile. "No, it's not about Transcendentalism," he said, a ghost of a chuckle in his voice. "It's a novella about a man who wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant, disgusting bug. And his family hates him and wishes he was dead because he's such a terrible burden to take care of. Eventually he dies, and then everyone is happy."

"That's how it ends?"

"Yes. It's one of my favorites. I've read it at least four times by now."

"Why does he turn into a bug?"

"There's no explanation for that, actually. It's sort of beside the point, anyway."

"And _that's_ your favorite book?" Sora asked dubiously.

"One of them, yes," Riku scowled, irritated with Sora's tone. "Why, what's _yours_?"

Sora shrugged. "I don't know. But one time I read this book about a girl who goes to this crazy world and makes friends with a lot of crazy creatures, and she has to fight this evil witch who's after her magic shoes."

"Very intellectual, I'm sure." Riku rolled his eyes.

"I liked it," Sora said, bouncing slightly in his chair. "In one part, a house falls on this other witch. A _house_! Those don't usually fall on people."

Roxas made a huffing sound from the corner. When Sora looked over, Roxas gave him a pointed look and flicked his tail impatiently.

"Oh, right! I got distracted! We need to talk about this shadow monster business!" Sora exclaimed.

"I'm listening," Riku yawned. Though he didn't seem to be listening, absorbed with his book as he was. But Sora was not deterred.

"So," he began, launching off as if he had been saving all of his words for this precise moment. "I figure since you're the one who's being attacked and I'm the one who knows about it, we're the ones who have to stop all the bad things from happening. If we don't, you'll turn into a gross gooey monster like the Nothing Man and everyone will die. So we have to stop the bad guy, but I don't really know how to do that. What do you think?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at him, for Sora had said the whole speech in a single breath, which was at least slightly impressive. He placed a thin ribbon to mark his place in his book before closing it and setting it aside.

"You know, you still haven't told me who this supposed bad guy is," he said. He stretched out on the couch a bit more, working out a few kinks in his back.

"Oh right, I forgot cuz you had to leave. It's that no-eyebrows guy, Xehanort ."

Riku balked and sat up. "Xehanort? As in, my uncle's adviser, Xehanort?"

"Yeah, who else do you know who has no eyebrows?"

"That's hardly his most defining feature," Riku scoffed. "I would have said it's his dumb goblin-ears."

Sora considered this, frowning thoughtfully. "Well I suppose his ears are pretty weird, too."

"Of _course_ they are," Riku said smugly. Then he blinked, realizing that he had gotten off track. "So Xehanort is stealing away my soul with shadows?"

"That's what Mr. Goo said. Apparently he was some kind of adviser in the other cities he destroyed, too."

Riku's eyes widened. He thought through all the interactions he'd ever had with the man, sifting through every memory of his menacing demeanor, his dark sneer of a smile, and all the times he had seemed to go out of his way to bother Riku.

"That's...actually not all that surprising, I guess," he concluded. "If I had to pick one person who I thought likely to be an evil soul-stealing city-destroyer, it would definitely be Xehanort. It's the pointy-ear thing, I guess."

"It's the no-eyebrow thing," Sora insisted. "Like, his face isn't complete! How do you know if he is frowning or sad or surprised?"

"Having pointy ears is definitely more evil-looking than having no eyebrows. But that's beside the point!" Riku's eyebrow twitched slightly, though it was more out of irritation at being contradicted than at getting off track again.

"I want you to tell me _exactly_ what the Nothing Man told you about this curse and about Xehanort," Riku demanded. "And try to have your explanation make actual sense. It might be difficult for you because clearly you like to ramble, but my life is at stake here. I need to know _exactly_ what is going on."

And so Sora set down explaining everything that he had learned from the Nothing Man in further detail. It was a long and very involved explanation, as Sora tended to get off track, and Riku had to stop him and ask him to clarify or repeat some parts. Riku asked enough interrogative questions to tire out a lesser interviewee, but Sora, as energetic as a rubber ball, answered everything to the best of his ability. After perhaps twenty minutes, Riku was satisfied with his information and leaned back in his seat with a troubled sigh.

"One would think that my uncle would have done a better background check on this guy before hiring him as a political adviser," Riku said. "I mean, even without knowing he was a psychotic shadow mage, every city he works for meets a violent and bloody demise. Not exactly a good resume."

"Maybe he interviews well," guessed Sora.

A grin appeared on Riku's lips, but was quickly suppressed.

"So what do you think we should do?" Sora asked.

"We have to find a way to keep the shadows from stealing my soul. That's number one, I think. Because if they don't steal my soul, then Xehanort's plans are immediately foiled. And besides, it's just so...I feel _violated_. It's not right." Riku gave a disturbed shudder at the memory of shadowy claws on his skin.

"And how should we do that?"

Riku considered this. "Well, we know that they don't like light, but at night, lamps are mostly useless against them—they aren't strong enough. If I try to make a blockade with ice, it slows them down, but they always manage to get through eventually. But we know it _is_ possible to outrun them, as you have clearly demonstrated."

"I've got it!" Sora exclaimed. "Why don't you stay with me?" 

"Why would I do that?"

"If you stick with me, we can get on my bike and outrun them again if they try to come after you! Duh."

"No," was Riku's flat response.

"Why not? What's wrong with that plan?"

"Once again, you are jumping to the most extreme conclusion. Let's think of something else."

"It's not extreme. You need to outrun the monsters and I'm the only one who can outrun them. It'll be fun! Like a sleepover!"

"No. I have my lessons to go to and exams to study for and all kinds of family obligations to keep. I can't just drop everything and stay with you for some undetermined amount of time. Besides, Sephiroth would hardly let me leave the mansion to live with some commoner boy."

"But it wouldn't be all the time, it would just be at night. So you'd still have time to do all your Riku stuff the rest of the day."

"How about we keep coming up with other ideas," Riku said, massaging his temple in exasperation. "We'll brain-storm for a bit. And once we have come up with every possible plan, we can pick from them."

"Okay...well what if you learned to ride a bike really fast like me?" Sora tried again. "Then you could get away from the monsters on your own. I could teach you how!"

Riku gave him a look clearly expressing how he felt about _that_ idea. As if he would ever subject himself to something as childish and unsophisticated as _riding a bike_. And with that established, he moved on.

"I should probably just talk to Mr. Eraqus about it. He might know some kind of protective spell that could keep them away." He made a sour face at this, however, as if it was a last resort that he did not relish in taking.

"Are there really spells like that?" Sora's eyes widened with excitement. "Magic is so weird!"

Riku slouched in his seat. "I probably should have just gone to him when this all started," he grumbled.

"So why didn't you?"

Riku tugged on a lock of his long hair absently and chewed the inside of his cheek. "I just thought it was a part of my other curse, how was I supposed to know it would turn out to be so bad? It was just kind of strange at first. Maybe a _tiny_ bit scary—to _most_ people, I mean. _I_ wasn't really that afraid of them—but they didn't seem to actually be doing anything that I could tell. Besides...I just...didn't feel like talking about it."

"Are you going to tell your uncle? If his adviser is a crazy person trying to kill everyone in the city, he should probably know about it, right?"

"He won't believe me. He never listens anyway. And if I told him, Xehanort is sure to find out. Then he'll know we know about him, and who knows what he'll do then. He might change his plan, or maybe accelerate it in some way. Or maybe he'll just kill us." He shook his head firmly. "No, I don't think I'll tell Sephiroth. Mr. Eraqus might be enough."

"So that's our plan, then? Tell your teacher guy about it?"

"I guess. I mean, I can always do some research. There must be something written about shadow magic somewhere."

"What about me?" Sora asked.

"What _about_ you?"

"What should I do? To help with the plan, I mean."

Riku shrugged. "You can go back to your life, I guess. I don't see why you need to do anything. Besides, I don't know how a delivery boy could help anyway."

Sora was crestfallen.

"I mean, it's not like you haven't been helpful so far," he added with uncharacteristic sympathy, fearful that an upset Sora would be even more trouble to deal with than an excited Sora. "I wouldn't have known about any of this if not for you, but you don't have to worry anymore. Mr. Eraqus and I will be able to take care of it, I'm sure."

Sora drooped in his seat like a wilted plant, his lips pursed with disappointment. He had been looking forward to an adventure, after all, and to have it cut short because he was simply not needed was definitely a blow. But Sora was not one to dwell on things that made him sad, and after a moment he shook it off. Besides, being told not to do something had certainly never stopped Sora before—in fact, sometimes that was half the fun. He could still find a way to be a part of this adventure, he was sure.

Riku was initially relieved when he saw Sora's frown fade, but the mischievous smile that replaced it made him wary.

"So what do you want to do now?" Sora asked.

"Well, _I_ was going to go back to reading my book. I suppose you can go off somewhere else—preferably away from here."

"Nah, that's boring. Why don't we go get ice cream?"

"Why would I do that?" Riku scoffed. "If I wanted to, I could get someone to _bring_ me ice cream _right here_. I don't have to go anywhere."

Sora's face lit up with delight and awe, and Riku grinned smugly.

"Can you really do that? That's so cool! Let's have someone bring us ice cream!" he cried.

And so, as a show of his amazing power, Riku called for a maid by tugging on a cord with a brass loop hanging from the wall. A minute later, a maid appeared in the doorway with a slight bow. With a start, Sora realized it was Namine. Up close, Sora noticed that she seemed very tired, as if she had not slept in days. He and Roxas exchanged a look.

Her eyes swept the room, resting curiously on the cat in the corner. She gave Sora an odd look as well, but Sora figured that to be the same surprise that everyone seemed to have at finding Riku willingly interacting with a guest. She accepted their request for ice cream quietly before disappearing again.

"Hey Riku, have you noticed anything weird about Namine?" he asked.

"Who?"

"Namine, the maid who was just here."

Riku sprawled himself back onto the couch lazily and gave a dismissive wave of his hand. " _I_ don't know," he yawned. "How am I supposed to keep track of all the servants around here?"

But when the ice cream arrived, all concerns were immediately pushed from his mind. Roxas scampered over from his spot on the chair and dug into his bowl with gusto, and Sora nearly attacked his. Riku watched the two of them demolish their dessert, on the brink of being appalled. He could afford to eat his ice cream slowly, however, thanks to a bit of ice magic keeping his bowl cold.

It was then that Riku realized Sora had tricked him into eating ice cream with him. The strangest part was that Riku wasn't sure that he minded.

* * *

Sora was halfway through making his deliveries the next day when Roxas made a sudden strangled noise from his basket seat.

"Ak! Quick, turn around!" he hissed, his tail puffed up with alarm.

"Huh? Why? I have to go this way for the next stop."

"Find another way! Quick, before he sees us!"

Sora noticed Axel up ahead, juggling balls of fire in front of a group of captivated children while Demyx strummed his sitar and called for donations.

"What, you don't want to talk to Axel?"

" _No_ I don't want to talk to him! Of _course_ I don't! Turn around, he'll see us!"

But Axel had already looked up and noticed their approach. His eyes widened when he saw them, and he nearly dropped the fireballs he had been juggling in his distraction. But with a quick save, he caught them all in one hand while the children cheered. Demyx gave him a confused look at the sudden interruption of the show.

"Hey!" Axel called after them, waving an arm. "Sora! Roxas, wait! Hey _wait_!" He started forward, trying to catch up to them.

But Sora had already changed their course and was riding away. "Sorry!" he called back over his shoulder. "He doesn't want to talk to you!" They rounded a corner and left the mage show and a confused Axel behind.

"That was close," Roxas breathed, relieved.

"So, are you just going to avoid him forever because he knows you're not really a cat?" There was a trace of disapproval in his tone.

"Not _forever._ I mean, he's a traveling street performer, he's bound to leave the city _eventually_. I'll just avoid him until then. Shouldn't be too hard."

Sora's silence was palpable, and Roxas turned a sharp eye on him.

" _What_?" he snapped.

"Running away from your problems never works."

"I'm not running away from my problems, I'm running away from _him_ ," Roxas shot back, gritting his sharp teeth.

"Yeah, but..."

"But _what_? I don't have to talk to him. And why should I? Since when do I owe him anything?" Roxas growled.

"But _still_. I mean, he's not bad. He's just concerned about you."

"Well I don't give a fuck! He can just mind his own business. And so can you!"

Sora swallowed his objections to avoid upsetting Roxas further. A delivery ride was not a good time to deal with one of Roxas' foul moods. So Sora said nothing. The resulting silence was heavy and uncomfortable.

Roxas hunched unhappily in the basket and made himself as small as possible. He stayed quiet while Sora made his deliveries, stewing in his own pride and guilt. Resentment welled up inside him, hate and anger at Sora for criticizing him.

It dissipated after a moment, and guilt washed over him in its wake. How could he ever be mad at Sora, after all Sora had done for him?

Roxas knew he was difficult to deal with. He always seemed on the verge of a sulky rage, and any wrong lean could have him lashing out in sudden, unpredictable anger. Sometimes he felt as if there were two of him; A calm, intelligent Roxas—the real him—and a irrational, hateful Roxas—an impostor, who would burst in and take over while the real Roxas could do nothing to stop it.

He wished fervently that he could apologize to Sora for snapping at him. But heavy silences have a way of making apologies difficult, so he said nothing. He felt selfish and mean, and helpless to stop himself from being so.

They rode through the city in silence, stopping here and there to unload packages, while Roxas felt increasingly worse. Now the small almost-argument had become blown and exaggerated in his head; He was convinced that he'd said something terrible, that he could never be forgiven, that Sora was furious with him.

Roxas was embroiled in such self-induced agony that when a small, fish-shaped cat treat was placed in front of him, he have a start. He looked up to see Sora, his face kind and smiling, having just returned from delivering a package.

"Miss Elena gave me a treat to give to you," Sora explained, amused at Roxas' surprise.

"Oh. Thanks." Roxas accepted it meekly, trying to apologize with his expression and tone without actually saying the words. Sora seemed to understand, and his smile softened. He scratched behind Roxas' ear before mounting his bike and setting off.

Sora wasn't mad at him. Of course he wasn't, Sora never got mad about things like that. Suddenly Roxas felt quite silly. He was always building up things like that in his head, stressing over minor situations, caught up in his own overwhelming emotions, even if they didn't have a logical explanation. How many times had he convinced himself that he had done something to make Sora furious enough to never want to talk to him again, only to find that Sora had already forgotten all about it?

He shook his head at his own terrible imagination and its tendency to consume him.

The bike made a sharp turn, and Roxas scrambled to catch his treat before it flew out of the basket. He heard Sora chuckling at him, and he smiled, wondering how exactly Sora was able to put up with him. He gobbled down the treat, which had a surprisingly realistic salmon flavor.

"Hey, do you want to visit Riku later?" Sora asked.

Roxas looked up at him. "You certainly are visiting Riku a lot, aren't you?" he said, almost slyly.

Sora shrugged. "I like him. I think he's funny. Plus, he can have people bring us ice cream!"

"That is a _very_ important quality to have," Roxas agreed wholeheartedly. "We definitely have to go."

As soon as Sora dropped off the list of receipt signatures with Cloud, he and Roxas set off once again to the mansion on the hill. They went through the same hidden hole in the fence and snuck past a few butlers up to Riku's library. They found him hunched over the low table, scribbling away in a notebook with several large books open in front of him. A tray bearing an elegant teapot, matching cups, and a small plate of puffy, golden-brown biscuits sat within his reach. The phonograph was on again, playing more melancholy piano music.

Riku barely looked up as they stepped inside. "I've got a lot of homework to do, so I can't really hang out today," he said. He put down his pen and picked up the teacup, taking a sip as he examined a page of one of the books.

"Boo! Homework is boring!" Sora declared as he plopped down in the seat that was fast becoming his usual spot. Roxas jumped into his lap and curled up.

" _Tell_ me about it!" Riku groaned. "I mean, when am I ever going to use trigonometry in life anyway?"

"I dunno, I never studied that."

"You're lucky you don't have to do homework," he said, scowling over his teacup at the mess of papers before him.

"Hey, what kind of tea is that?"

Riku blinked, surprised, and looked down into his cup as if just noticing it. "What do you mean what _kind_ of tea? It's _tea_. Black tea. I don't understand."

"And you're eating biscuits too?"

Riku looked at the plate of pastries, baffled. "Well, yes," he admitted.

"Does the tea go well with the biscuits?"

"What kind of questions are these?"

Sora shrugged. "Just curious," was all he offered.

"Whatever." Riku rolled his eyes and returned to his notebook. He had no time to waste being confused by Sora's weirdness.

"Oh hey, by the way!" Sora interrupted again.

" _What_?" Riku sighed, annoyed.

"Did you know that you have this big hole in your fence? Hidden in the bushes. Roxas and I were wondering about it. The bars are broken all weird, not like they were bent or cut or anything. It's weird. Do you think it has something to do with Xehanort?"

"Huh? Oh, that hole. No, there's no need to worry about that. I made it."

"You _did_? How? Why?"

It was Riku's turn to shrug as he set down his teacup and flipped through the pages of one of his books. "I just didn't feel like having to talk to the gate man every time I wanted to go in and out of the mansion. It's too much trouble, and he's too annoying. Sometimes he doesn't let me out, and if I came back late, he would always scold me like I was a kid or something. I made it so I could come and go as I pleased without having to get anyone's approval. It wasn't hard. I just froze the bars until they were brittle enough to break." He looked up and gave Sora a particularly self-pleased smile. "I kicked them, and they just shattered everywhere. It was pretty cool."

Sora was thoroughly impressed. He started telling Riku about his own confrontations with the gate man and his oppressive ways.

"So did you tell teacher guy about the monsters yet?" Sora asked.

"Hm? Oh, Mr. Erqaus." Riku frowned at the table in front of him. "Yeah, I told him earlier."

" _And_? Did he come up with cool spells?"

Riku tugged on a lock of hair and leaned back in his seat. "He didn't believe me. He said I was being anti-social and told me to try to get along better with Xehanort."

"Lame."

"Very lame," he agreed. "I was sure he would help. But he's so by-the-book, so anything new or strange is either impossible or scandalous to him. Since he's never heard of it before, he doesn't believe it exists. I mean, he's a great teacher, don't get me wrong. But sometimes I wish he was just a little more open-minded."

"So I guess we're on our own again, huh?"

"Seems that way," Riku sighed, leaning back in his seat and running a hand through his hair. "I'll just have to try to research it then, see if I can find some spells to counteract the monsters on my own."

"You won't find much, I'm afraid," said a soft voice suddenly from the doorway. "At least, not in any libraries in Nomura."

The two boys and the cat whipped around in their seats to find Namine quietly closing the door behind her.

"Excuse me?" snapped Riku. "I don't remember calling anyone. We don't need anything from you."

"On the contrary Riku, there are many things you need from me," she said simply, looking him dead in the eye. "Because I know how you can stop Xehanort."

That shut Riku up instantly, and his eyes widened. Sora and Roxas tensed, confused and wary.

"What did you say?" Riku frowned.

"Xehanort and his shadow monsters, the ones he's using to steal your soul. I know how to stop them." When the boys continued to gape at her, she smiled to herself and stepped away from the door to stand by the table. "I heard everything yesterday. There's no need to look so confused about it."

"You were eavesdropping on us? How dare you!" cried Riku, outraged that a maid had the audacity to do such a thing.

Namine gave a light shrug, unconcerned. "It's not like it was hard. Security in the Jenova manor is a lot more relaxed than I would have expected. But no matter. We want the same thing, after all. To see Xehanort defeated." She took a seat in a chair next to her, with her ankles crossed and hands clasped in her lap neatly, and gave them a cool look.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Riku snarled, narrowed eyes flashing angrily. "Why would…" He stopped suddenly, and his face smoothed into something blank and expressionless. "You're not a maid, are you?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.

Namine lowered her eyes and smiled demurely. "Whoops, looks like you found me out."

Sora gasped. "So you _were_ mysterious after all! Kairi was right!"

Riku braced his hands on his knees and leaned forward with a cold glare, while the room seemed to drop several degrees in temperature. "Just who are you, exactly?" he growled.

"My my, how very frightening you are," Namine said dryly, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. "But if you kill me, then you won't learn how to stop Xehanort, will you?"

"Shut up! Tell me who you are and what you're doing here!"

"Such contradictory demands," she said with a small grin. "Do you want me to tell you or do you want me to shut up?"

"You know what I mean!" Riku snapped, pale cheeks giving way to a light blush.

Namine chuckled at him, a sound like rustling wind chimes.

Riku glared. Sora shifted in his seat, looking between them cautiously, and Roxas was hunched with his ears flattened defensively. But the tense moment was shattered when the door slammed open with a bang. Kairi stood in the opening, eyes wild and pointing an accusing finger at Namine.

"She's a spy!" Kairi exclaimed.

"Eh? She's a spy?" Sora gasped.

"Is every maid going to burst in here uninvited today?" Riku growled.

Kairi saw Riku's glowering face and gave a startled 'ak!' She immediately fell into a deep bow. "Please forgive me Sir. But I have reason to believe that this girl is a spy from Alexandria!" She rose to give Namine a contemptuous look.

"Ah, so it seems someone was onto me after all," was all Namine had to say on the matter.

"So you don't deny it!" cried Kairi.

"I do not."

"Woah! Kairi, you were right! She _was_ suspicious!" Sora said, wondrously impressed.

"I know, right? No one believed me, but I was _totally right_!" Kairi glowed with pride, hands on her hips.

"Alexandria, huh?" Riku said, examining Namine darkly. "Those devious bastards. I should tell my uncle right now and have you locked up for the rest of your worthless life."

Namine was not nearly as intimidated by this as she could have been. "And where would that get you, hm?" she said sharply. "You get your reason to attack my people and start a war. Meanwhile, Xehanort slowly steals your soul and destroys every person in both of our cities. All outing me will get you is death and destruction."

Riku narrowed his eyes and said nothing.

"Aren't you the one trying to start a war?" asked Kairi. She pulled up a chair next to Sora and took a seat, eyes bright with excitement. " _You're_ the one spying on _us_ , you know! How do you explain _that_ , Namine— _if that is your real name_!"

Namine sniffed dismissively. "Of _course_ that's what an arrogant Nomuran would believe. It would never occur to you that not everyone was out for your blood. But I'll have you know that I was sent here to _prevent_ a war, not start one."

"Prevent one, huh?" said Sora, nodding thoughtfully. "Oh I see. Well that's fine, then."

"It is _not_ fine! Don't go deciding things like that!" snapped Kairi. "And don't say 'oh I see' like you understand!"

"What do you mean, you're here to prevent war?" insisted Riku.

Namine pursed her lips. "Wouldn't you rather hear what I have to say about Xehanort? I'd say that's the most important thing here."

"I want to hear both. But I can't trust you if I don't know why you are here. And if I can't trust you, then I can't believe whatever it is you have to say about him, so there wouldn't be a point."

She gave him a long look, but Riku held his ground.

"Fair enough," she said at last. She gave a soft sigh and looked down into her lap, where her hand had started fiddling with the hem of her apron. "There have been rumors running throughout Alexandria about how Nomura is developing and stocking up more and more weapons. How Nomura is slowly trying to take control of the neutral villages surrounding Alexandria. Making deals with the mining companies working near our borders. Bullying Alexandrian merchants and setting up tariffs against us. Some say that an attack is bound to happen soon, and others say that these things are already an attack enough. And most believe that violence is only inevitable." She bit her lip and looked up at them fiercely.

"But my people do not want war." Her hands balled into fists, gripping her skirt tightly. "We have nothing to gain by such a thing. And Lady Garnet is trying her best to preserve peace and calm her citizens, but it is not easy. They are afraid. And a frightened group of people is a dangerous thing, especially in large numbers.

"And so My Lady sent me here, to discover which rumors were true and to find out the reasons behind Nomura's actions. To prepare and defend ourselves, and to perhaps find better ways to negotiate with you. If I could find out what is was that your government was after, then perhaps we could find a way to convince you to stop your aggression toward us."

"Garnet? I thought Brahn was the noble who ruled over Alexandria," said Kairi.

"She is. But her daughter, Lady Garnet, is just as involved in the well-being of our city as her mother. She is a kind and fair young woman, and since she has come of age, My Lady has proven herself quite worthy of being our ruler," Namine said, swelling with pride and admiration.

"So you hate Brahn, huh?" said Sora.

"Wh-what? I said no such a thing!" Namine stammered, face slightly flushed. "I would never _never_ say something like that! For one such as myself to express that kind of opinion, that would be—I would _never_! Lady Brahn _may_ be a bit rash and perhaps more uncouth than she could be—but she is still our noble ruler and—"

"Yeah yeah, cut the crap," Riku interrupted. "So you hate that old hag just like the rest of us. Who cares?" Namine broke into a flurry of protests, but Riku ignored them. "The _important_ thing here is why you say Nomura is out to destroy _you_ , when Alexandria is clearly the one out to get _us_. _You're_ the ones taking over mines and trade routes and villages. And hasn't Alexandria started drafting mages into your army?"

"If we have, it's only in defense from you!"

"We're the ones defending ourselves from _you_!" he shot back.

"And that seems to be the trouble, doesn't it?" Namine said, her anger melting into concern. "That's what I've learned since I've got here. The same rumors everyone is frightened of back home are shaking up the people here, too, only reversed."

"So if we are both only defending ourselves from each other, how did any of this start?" asked Kairi.

"I believe that's where Xehanort comes in," she answered. "You may not know of him in this city, but that does not mean he is so unknown in other parts of the world. I believe that he has used his power and influence to plant these rumors in both cities, trying to force us into war for his own twisted ends. He is a monster who thrives off the chaos he creates and the pain he inflicts. Some say that he is over a hundred years old, and that every few decades he reinvents himself with the power he steals from others. The number of cities he has destroyed is unknowable. But he has not been in this part of the world very long. So he is able to operate easily, since no one knows who he really is."

Kairi leaned over in her chair to whisper in Sora's ear. "Xehanort, Sephiroth's advisor? He's evil after all?" she asked.

"Yeah, super evil. I'll tell you about it later."

Kairi nodded and returned her attention to Namine.

"So how do you know about him, then, if he's so anonymous?" Riku asked.

"I may have been born in Alexandria, but I have traveled widely in order to further my education. Not that there's anything _wrong_ with a purely Alexandrian education, of course. But travel is an important part of learning different perspectives. You really do develop as a person that way. I highly recommend it!"

"This isn't the time to advertise! Get on with your explanation!"

"Right! Anyway, for a while I was living in a town called Mysidia, where I came across several of Xehanort's victims in the hospital where I worked for a bit. They had just barely managed to escape from the nearby city of Damcyan, which had been torn apart by a vicious civil war only a few months before I arrived, and were trying to recover. We learned from one of them about how Xehanort had infiltrated, masquerading as a political advisor, and how he'd found a way to fill the hearts of the people with so much darkness that they turned on each other. Brother against brother, friend against friend. The city was completely destroyed.

"The survivors did not recover. Xehanort has gone unknown for so long because his victims never survive—not for long, anyway, and so there isn't anyone to expose him. Though the doctors tried their best, all the survivors of the Damcyan civil war eventually succumbed to madness or committed suicide. Their hearts had been so tainted by darkness that they could not endure it." She clutched her skirt once more, knuckles white. "It was a painful thing. And I wish never to witness anything like it ever again." Her voice was soft enough to be a whisper, and her audience leaned forward to better hear her. She swallowed thickly and composed herself.

"A mage scholar by the name of Yen Sid—perhaps you've heard of him? He's very well-known—he was in the town at the time, and revealed that he knew how to stop such terrible magic. By then, of course, it was too late. The damage had been done."

"So how do we stop him?" Riku urged impatiently.

"Well, I may be a bit fuzzy on the details and I certainly don't know the magic theory behind it, but the only way to stop Xehanort is to use a sword made with light and love, forged by a powerful mage."

"A what?" asked Riku, Sora, and Kairi with equal confusion.

"A sword made of light and love." 

"How can a sword be made out of something intangible like that? Swords need steel and iron to be strong," said Kairi.

Namine shrugged. "A mage bladesmith uses light and love to forge a sword, and only that can defeat shadow magic like Xehanort's. It made more sense when Yen Sid said it, I guess. I'm not sure I can explain it better than that."

"That sounds dumb," said Riku.

"Well fine, if you don't want my help and knowledge, you don't have to take it!" Namine sniffed, affronted.

"Why did you sneak up in here, acting like you've got all kinds of valuable information about how to defeat Xehanort, when really you don't know any better than we do? You're wasting my time with this useless stuff." Riku scowled and leaned back in his seat.

"It is not useless! These things exist, I'm telling you!"

"Then where do we get one?"

"Well…I'm not really sure…" she admitted, biting her lip.

"See? Useless."

Namine fumed at him, offended, but Riku had picked up one of his text books and was wasn't paying her any attention.

"Now if you all don't mind, I have quite a bit of homework to do," he said, flipping through the pages. "So if you could all leave, that would be—"

"So Kairi, how did you find out Namine was a spy from Alexandria?" Sora broke in.

He didn't seem to notice Riku's outraged look at being interrupted. Roxas did, however, and smirked mockingly at him, which had Riku blinking in confusion. Did a cat just _smirk_ at him?

"Yes, I am quite interested at well. I thought I had all my bases covered. How did you find out?" asked Namine.

"Well if you _must_ know," Kairi began with pride, "I've had my suspicions for a while. And earlier today, I snuck into your room, where I found a number of incriminating notebooks with observations about the nobles and letters from your Lady Garnet."

"You snuck into my room?" Namine asked, alarmed.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, I realize what an invasion of privacy that is—wait, I'm not sorry! You're a spy! Why should I care?"

Namine gave a nod. "I suppose you're right about that."

"You went spying without me? No fair!" Sora whined.

"It couldn't be helped," Kairi shrugged. "You weren't around." She turned to Namine with an eager expression "So how did you do it? How did you make us think you were a maid who worked here for years?"

" I suppose I might as well tell you. I mean, you found out the most important part anyway." She sat up straighter in her seat. "Let me introduce myself. I am Special Agent Namine, an operative for the Alexandrian military. I'm a mage with a specialty in memory manipulation. I merely supplanted myself in the memories of the workers here, a subtle, yet widespread spell, to help me blend in while I accomplished my mission."

"Hah! I knew it!" Kairi cried in jubilation. "I knew something was weird about the memories! Of _course_ , a mage might manipulate memories, that makes so much sense!"

"Wait a minute," said Riku, having apparently abandoned his efforts to finish his homework. "You messed with my memories? That is unforgivable!"

"Oh hush," scolded Namine. "I didn't do anything to _you_. Most nobles hardly notice the people working for them, so I didn't bother with you."

Riku relaxed only slightly.

"So where does the fake memory stop and reality begin? How long have you been here, really?" Kairi asked.

"Four weeks and two days exactly," she answered. She looked at Sora. "By the way, who are you? You aren't a servant and you aren't a noble. What are you doing here? You've had me puzzled for days."

"Oh, I'm Sora! And this is Roxas!"

"Ah, yes, I met him yesterday. So he's your cat, then?"

"Something like that."

"You know, I should still turn you in to my uncle. This spying thing is sketchy, I don't care what your reasons are." Riku was still scowling at Namine.

"Oh, come on, Riku. Don't do that!" said Sora. "She's not so bad! And she'll help us defeat Xehanort!"

"That's right!" Namine agreed. She stood from her seat to give a low bow. "I would be very grateful to you if you did not turn me in. And I promise that I will do everything I can to stop this evil man from bringing chaos and death to our cities!"

Her sincere appeal was met with slight hesitation, but after a moment (and some puppy-dog eyes on Sora's part), Riku gave in. "Fine," he huffed in irritation. "I won't tell anyone. But you have to come up with something better to defeat him with than a _love sword_."

Namine straightened from her bow with a smile which seemed to relieve some of the tiredness from her eyes. "I will do my best, you can count on me!" She clenched a fist in determination. "I will have to do extensive research on the topic!"

"How exciting!" exclaimed Sora. "A proper group is crucial for a good adventure, everyone knows that!"

"So Sora, are you going to tell me what's going on, or what?" Kairi asked him while Riku and Namine discussed research libraries. "Whatever it is, it sounds wild, and I am _not_ getting left out of something like that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Riku's book is Kafka's The Metamorphosis, because he would be one of those people. And Sora would probably get a kick out of The Wizard of Oz since there are definitely some parallels between that and kh1. And the whole Life Stream thing in ff7 has some Transcendentalist influences in my opinion, so I decided that Aerith probably talks about it a lot to anyone who'll listen.
> 
> The places Namine mentions are from Final Fantasy IV. I thought it was fun to put them in, like I do with my IX references.


	8. The Firefly Queen

"I think the best strategy would be to split up, and have each of us take a different section," said Riku, standing before them, arms clasped behind his back like a general issuing orders to his troops. "Blonde Maid, you take the magic theory section, down at the far end there. Not-Blonde Maid, you take the history section up there—"

"My name is  _Kairi_."

"Sure. See if you can find something in the history books about shadow magic or love swords or anything. Sora, you take the shelf there, it has books about curses— Don't make that face, this'll be good for you, a real learning experience. And make sure your cat doesn't knock anything over. I'll take the section over here on weaponry. Maybe there will be something about magic-infused swords or something that could be useful." With their orders received, the troops split up and set off for their destinations, some more enthusiastic than others.

They were in the mansion's main library, an enormous, solemn room, brimming with noble history and stiff pride with every smooth curve of mahogany and gleaming gold carving in its walls and shelves. The high, arched ceiling flaunted detailed murals depicting fat, winged children lounging on clouds, who gazed over the room in languid amusement. Tight spiral staircases wound their way up to the second level, a railed walkway that bisected the tall shelves. The air in the library had an  imposing sort of stillness to it, which made each would-be researcher wandering through its stacks feel they were intruding on something sacred. The glossy marble flooring amplified their footsteps, and the room seemed to glare at them for the disruption. Even Riku, who lived in the mansion and had a reasonable claim to the library, always felt he was breaking some sort of unspoken rule when he was inside, as if he were using the priceless display china to eat breakfast.

They had been looking through the books for less than fifteen minutes before Sora's limited attention span wore out and he decided he was bored. He closed the book in his hands and set it back in its home on the shelf with a weary groan.

"Roxas, I don't think this is going to work," he concluded.

Roxas had meanwhile jumped up onto a shelf to sniff the book bindings and chuckle at the silly names of the authors he found.

"It might work better if you managed to make it past the Table of Contents in any book you opened," was Roxas' dry response. He nibbled the corner of a particularly fat book and grinned. "Hey, look, the author of this one is named  _Borkennoogen_. What the hell kind of ridiculous name is that?  _Borkennoogen!_ "

Sora agreed that it was a hilarious name, but it did nothing to liven up the task at hand. "This is  _boring_ ," he insisted.

"What am I supposed to do about it? Oh my God,  _this_  guy's name is Bullafhart!"

"I think we should leave."

"Did you hear me? I said  _Bullafhart_. That was a person's  _name_. He had to  _live_  with that name."

"Unfortunate as his life must have been, I still want to leave."

"And what about the search for a way to save the city? That  _is_  what we're supposed to be doing, after all."

"I don't think we'll find the answers we need in a book."

"I wonder what Bullafhart would do in this situation," Roxas mused. "I'm sure he was a very logical man, and all his friends went to him for financial advice. And he probably called people 'old sport' and things like that."

"I believe both Mr. Bullafhart  _and_  Mr. Borkennoogen would want us to go," said Sora. "I bet Borkennoogen had a lot of regrets in life, and he would want to make sure that we never spent time doing things we thought were boring."

"I suppose so," Roxas snorted. "Borkennoogen was a lonely man who never married. He would often grow misty-eyed while gazing out the window, thinking of his past."

"So, are you coming with me?"

"Of course I am. Borkennoogen would have wanted it. And maybe Bullafhart would have, too, in his own way."

The rest of the group was not quite as amenable to Sora's decision to leave. But though they frowned and argued and tried to get him to stay, it was no use. When Sora had made his mind up about something, there was very little anyone could do to stop him.

"Don't be such an idiot!" scoffed Riku, arms folded in stern disapproval. "This library is very extensive. It might take some time, but it's bound to have something useful."

"You can't just ditch us like this, it's not fair," added Kairi. "We all have to do our best to help, don't we?" Sora was, technically, the only link she had to this strange group, and she wasn't sure she liked being left with the Ice Prince and the spy from Alexandria.

"But there's no way I can do my best here. My skills are better suited for more proactive tasks," he argued simply.

"And what exactly are you going to do instead?"

Sora shrugged. "I dunno yet. But I'm pretty lucky, so I'm sure something will turn up. See ya!" And with that, he turned with a wave and made his way out the door, Roxas at his heels.

Riku let out an irritated sigh. "Whatever, If he wants to go, let him," he mumbled more than a little bitterly before stomping back to his section. It was quite possible that he was the  _tiniest_  bit upset at the ease with which Sora could disregard the value of books and research, something he himself held quite dear. Not that he would ever admit such a thing, of course. Because getting upset over a thing like that would be silly. And Riku was most definitely  _not_  silly. And if he happened to be scowling more than he had been before, it was certainly not because of  _that_.

The girls exchanged a look before returning to their shelves as well.

* * *

 

Sora flew through the streets, the smoothly paved roads and general downward slant of the northern district combining to give his trusty red bike the speed of pebble caught in a wild river current. He hunched over the handlebars with his butt off the seat, making himself as aerodynamic as a solid boy could be. Roxas sat up in his seat with his front paws braced on the edge of the basket, while the wind flapped his ears and pulled his lips back in an hysteric grin. People honked, shrieked and cursed at him, but the only damage caused were a few rustled skirts or fallen hats blown away from their owners, caught in the small tornado left in his wake.

By the time the streets flattened out and the bike eased into a slower pace, Sora was laughing with exhilaration. The hills of the southern district might be more daring and wild, but few things could beat sailing down a single giant slope. Even Roxas was beginning to appreciate it a little.  _Just_  a little, though. And besides, the streets were a bit emptier than usual, making for less obstacles to weave through, which definitely helped ease Roxas' blood pressure and let him enjoy the ride without the fear of imminent death ruining the fun.

Although, it was a bit  _odd_  that the streets were so much less crowded than normal, Roxas thought. Usually about this time of day there would be all kinds of traffic of late afternoon crowds running errands or visiting friends. Instead, most of the people who seemed to be out and about were a few scattered soldiers, who walked briskly and quietly in pairs here and there. Roxas was about to ask Sora what he thought about this anomaly, when suddenly his large ears twitched.

"Hey, do you hear that?" he asked instead.

Sora paused when he noticed the staccato of running footsteps.

"Roxas! Sora! Hey, wait up!" someone called.

"Gah not him again!" hissed Roxas.

Sora turned to see Axel jogging toward them, one long arm outstretched in a wave. His vivid red hair was a stark contrast to the gray of the surrounding buildings.

"Are we still avoiding him?" Sora asked the cat in the basket.

"Yes please," was his prompt answer.

"Okay," Sora shrugged. He cupped his hand to the side of his mouth and shouted "Sorry, we're still avoiding you!" before speeding off.

"Dammit get back here! I hate chasing after people!" Axel hollered behind them. "That's  _twice_  today!"

"Maybe next time!" Sora answered with a cheerful wave. They could hear Axel shouting irritably after them, cursing them with a number of strange and creative insults which seemed to stem from a deep loathing of having people run away from him.

"Thanks," Roxas mumbled sheepishly.

"You're probably gonna have to talk to him eventually, though. If someone tries that hard to talk to you, it's gonna happen at some point. Simple as that. Besides, what if he has something totally unexpected to say?"

Roxas made a noncommittal grunt in response, reminded of the guilt that had resulted from this argument earlier that day.

"So what should we do about stopping Xehanort, now that we're out of the library?" he asked, in his best attempt at a smooth change of subject.

"I dunno. Wanna go get ice cream?"

"The answer to that question will  _always_  be yes."

And so they made their way to Scrooge's Ice Cream Parlor, their favorite dessert shop in the western district.

Nestled snugly between its neighbors, Scrooge's Ice Cream Parlor declared itself with a large, flashy sign and bright walls. Once inside, customers were met with bold primary colors and the sweet aroma of cold sugar, while a player-piano jangled away on its own with familiar melodies in one corner. While the streets may have been oddly quiet, the shop was bustling with cheerful people talking and laughing together as it always was.

Sora and Roxas were well known at this particular establishment, and when they stepped inside, announced by the wild jingle of the bell attached to the door, the cashier behind the counter gave them a bright holler.

"Why if it isn't our best customers, Mr. Everything-On-The-Menu and Sea Salt, The Cat Wonder!"

"Yo! How's it goin' Huey?" Sora greeted as he made his way to the counter with Roxas on his shoulder.

"Oh, same old, same old. So what can I get ya?" Huey asked.

Sora scanned the menu set up on the wall behind the counter thoughtfully. "I think today shall be a day for triple chocolate chunk with sprinkles and whipped cream. And a bowl of sea salt ice cream for the fuzzy one. Put a cherry on his, too. He needs to eat more fruit."

"Coming right up!" he collected Sora's money and hopped off to prepare their desserts.

"What was that crap about me needing fruit?" Roxas growled quietly in Sora's ear. His claws were prickling against Sora's shoulder threateningly.

"Healthy growing boys need to eat fruits and vegetables, even I know that. All  _you_  eat is meat and dairy. That might be fine for a real cat, but it can't be good for  _you_ ," Sora replied.

"Tch, like a cherry on ice cream is going to make a difference," Roxas scoffed.

"You might as well eat it."

Someone sat down on the stool next to them, preventing Roxas from making any scathing comeback. Sora looked over to find he recognized this particular someone.

"Hiya Aerith!" he chirped.

The woman turned at the greeting, and her pretty face lit up with a smile.

"Sora, how nice to see you," she said. "Seems like I'm not the only one who decided that this was a good time for a treat. How are you?"

"Oh, you know. Making friends, having adventures. Same as usual," he answered.

"Of course," she chuckled.

Huey returned with their ice cream, and they dug into their bowls while Aerith placed an order for strawberry frozen yogurt. Roxas was tempted to knock his cherry to the floor out of spite, but he changed his mind and gobbled it up quickly before Sora could tease him about it. Really, though, the cherry was probably more sugary than the ice cream.

"Fo whaf ew wif oo?" Sora asked around a mouthful of chocolate chunk.

"What's new with me? Not too much," Aerith answered, expertly interpreting mouth-full-of-food language. "Business has been slow today, so I decided to take a break. And Zack isn't feeling very well.”

"Oh no! Zack's sick? That's not good!" said Sora with a frown.

"It's just a cold. I’m sure he'll be okay if he just sleeps it off for a bit." Her frozen yogurt arrived in front of her, and she ate a delicate spoonful with satisfaction. "The only trouble is," she continued, "I have all these large planters and flower pots that I need to move for an order I got earlier today, and there's simply no way I can do it on my own. Normally Zack would help, but since he's out of commission for the time being, I suppose I'll just have to set the delivery back a day or two." Her brows pulled together unhappily for a moment as she ate more of her dessert. "I really do hate missing deadlines, but I suppose there's nothing I can do. I'm sure my clients will understand."

"Hey, what if I helped you instead?" Sora asked. "I bet I could move those flower pots no problem!"

Aerith brightened up considerably. "Oh  _would_  you? That's very kind of you to offer. Some of the pots are really very large, though. Are you sure you want to do it?"

"Sure! Leave it to me, there's no flower pot that can withstand my might!" he declared with a showy display of his bicep muscle.

She chuckled and gave a radiant smile. "Thank you  _so_  much, I really would appreciate your help."

So once all their desserts had been finished, Sora grabbed his bike and followed Aerith a few short blocks to the flower shop. When they arrived, he made a quick detour to park his bike in the delivery shop's garage across the street.

"She totally conned you into this," said Roxas as Sora settled his bike in its spot. Cloud's motorcycle was absent, he noticed, meaning that Cloud wasn't around the shop. That was hardly unusual, though, because Sora remembered Cloud mentioning earlier that morning that he needed to take his motorcycle to Cid's for some maintenance.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it's very convenient that we  _happened_  to bump into Aerith right when she needed help moving giant planters. Since when does she go by herself to eat dessert, anyway? And she just  _happened_  to bring up the fact that she needed help. I bet she was looking for you and figured you'd be at Scrooge's. She conned you good."

Sora shrugged, causing Roxas to nearly lose his balance on his shoulder. "Well that's okay. I don't mind helping her either way. And who knows, maybe she's just shy about asking that kind of thing directly." He locked the garage back up and started back over to the flower shop.

"Psh, yeah  _right_. Aerith totally gets a kick out of doing things like this. I mean, have you  _seen_  the kinds of things she manages to make Zack do? Like that time he was running all over town trying to find supplies to make that wagon display they have? That woman is some kind of mastermind, I swear."

"Don't say rude things about Aerith!" Sora scolded.

"How was that rude? I didn't say she was an  _evil_  mastermind. In fact, I admire her cunning and manipulative ways. It's very inspiring!"

Sora jostled his shoulder a bit, and Roxas slipped off his perch, landing on his feet only through a last-second twist.

"What the heck was that for!" Roxas yowled indignantly.

Sora pulled down the skin under one eye with a finger and stuck out his tongue with a taunting 'buuuh', then ran off cackling.

"Whatever!" Roxas called after him. He followed Sora grumpily to the shop.

Aerith's flower shop was a bright spot of greenery among the comparatively tame buildings on the street around it. An array of flowers and ferns swayed and shimmied in the late afternoon breeze, lining the steps to the doorway and partially obscuring the front window in their enthusiasm. Bushes of vines snuck their way out of the windows of the second story to rest over the pink-and-white candy-striped awning, which bore the name  _Elmyra's_ , after Aerith's late mother. The fragrance of flowers and fresh-cut grass greeted customers like a friendly handshake upon entering the jungle of the interior. Pots of bright blossoms and foliage covered the floor, tables, and shelves, and when there wasn't room, they hung from the ceiling. The focus of the room was a large wagon, painted yellow and trimmed with pink ribbon, which housed an explosion of speckled wildflowers. Flower sprites were occasionally found hiding amongst their petals, but there didn’t seem to be any today.

It seemed that Sora was not the only victim to Aerith's charms, manipulative or not, because once inside the shop, he found Yuffie there as well. She was sitting on the counter by the register in one of the few spots free of vegetation, kicking her feet so that the heels of her lace-up boots bounced off base of the counter. When she saw Sora, her face broke into a wide smile.

"Hooray, my flower-pot-moving buddy is here!" she cried jubilantly.

Aerith appeared in the doorway leading to the back room, sporting a pair of work gloves. Her hair was now tied back with a bandana, and a dirt-smudged apron covered her dress.

"I hope you're not scuffing my counter." Aerith gave a stern look at Yuffie and her kicking. Yuffie immediately hopped off the counter as if it had bit her.

"Nope, not at all," she said with a sheepish grin.

"Good. I want to thank the both of you again for helping me," she said, smiling warmly. "So put these gloves on and follow me to the back so I can put you young'uns to work!"

She tossed them each their own pair of gloves and led her enthusiastic volunteers to the back storage room. The walls of the storage room were lined with stacks of pots and planters of varying sizes and piles of canvas sacks full of soil and mulch. Aerith made her way to a corner where a cluster of young sapling trees sat, their roots bundled in cloth like bulbous socks. Their spindly, leafless trunks were tied with cord to thin wooden poles to keep them upright, and at their tallest, they couldn't have reached much higher than Aerith's chin.

"Alright, so here's the project. We have fifteen plum tree saplings here, and they need to be put in those pots there," she gestured to a stack of large planters, "and filled with this soil here," she gestured to a heap of canvas sacks. She explained how to place the trees into the pots without damaging anything, the exact amount of soil needed for every tree, and exactly how to pack the dirt around the roots. She walked the two of them through an example, and once she deemed them worthy enough, the they set to work.

The pots and bags of dirt were heavy and everything seemed to want to go anywhere except where it needed to. They eased into a working rhythm, with Sora handling the pot-moving, Yuffie the tree-placing, and Aerith the soil-pouring. Roxas watched them labor from a lofty perch on a stack of mulch bags, snickering quietly when Sora or Yuffie managed to spill dirt all over themselves, which happened frequently.

"Oh, hey, I have a question," Sora began as he settled another planter in place. "Have either of you ever heard of a sword made of light?"

"Hah?" Yuffie grunted as she lifted a tree and lowered it into the pot. Aerith helped her stabilize it and began packing in the soil. "A whatnow?"

"A sword made out of light," he repeated. "Like, if a mage made a sword, but it was made out of light instead of, you know, normal sword stuff. I guess it would have to be some kind of  _magic_  sword, cuz I don't know how else that would work. But yeah, I was just wondering if you've ever heard of anything like that."

Yuffie gave a loud snort. "What a strange, out-of-nowhere question. But what else can you expect with Sora?" She laughed and scratched her nose, leaving a smear of dirt across her cheek like warrior paint.

"Why do you ask?" ventured Aerith. She finished with the soil and stood up, dusting her hands on her apron.

"Oh, well, cuz my friends and I were trying to find one, or some information on one, at least. I'm pretty sure it's the only way we can stop this evil no-eyebrows guy from destroying the city with shadows. So if you can think of anything, that would be good." He carried over the next pot with a grunt of effort.

Yuffie and Aerith raised their eyebrows skeptically at him, but, like Cloud, they had grown used to Sora's strange stories enough by now to let these sorts of things pass. With a shared shrug, they returned to potting the next sapling.

"A sword of light, hm?" pondered Aerith. "You know, my mother used to tell me a story about something like that. Just one of Nomura's old legends, really, the kind that's been passed down through generations. Although, it's not a  _sword_  so much as a dagger infused with light, forged by a mage in order to protect his lover. Oh, it used to be one of my  _favorite_  stories, I used to have my mother tell it over and over again when I was little. It's a classic, tragic love story, and you  _know_  I'm a sucker for those kinds of things." She chuckled while packing the soil.

"A magic dagger, huh?" said Sora, chewing the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. "Sounds close enough. What's the story about it?"

"You want to hear it?"

"Yeah, let's hear it!" agreed Yuffie.

"Alright. It'll be a good way to pass the time as we work." She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her gloved hand and looked over the remaining saplings.

"This is the story of the Firefly Queen," she began. Her voice took on the lulling, rhythmic quality of skillful story-tellers, and Yuffie and Sora's eyes were bright with interest as they packed the next sapling in place.

Long ago, the story went, there was a mage who lived in Nomura. The mage was a young, vivacious man from a good family, but like many young men with power and privilege, he was an idle sort of person, who had never found anything to dedicate himself to. He was a charming, intelligent man, but he was also quite lazy and frivolous, and tutors and family members would often complain that he was not living up to his potential.

One day, the mage was taking a walk through the hills and woods outside the town, wandering aimlessly as usual, his head full of daydreams. He paid little attention to where he walked or to the time, and when the sun had begun to set, he realized that he was quite lost. The forest changed completely with the setting of the sun, for while it had been peaceful during the day, it quickly became dangerous in the darkness. Trees that had guided the mage earlier now began to trick him, leading him deeper into a sinister labyrinth. Wild beasts lurked in the shadows, but he was able to use his magic to keep them at bay.

Just as the mage was about to lose all hope of ever finding his way, he found a gathering of fireflies, who, like guiding candles in the night, led him through the darkness. They took him to a clearing at the edge of the forest, where he found a small cabin, lit from within by a warm glow. The door opened, and he saw standing before him the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. The mage immediately knew who this girl was, for he had heard many stories about travelers lost in the forest who had been rescued by a mysterious girl with the ability to command fireflies. The girl standing before him was known throughout the city as the Firefly Queen.

She gave him shelter for the night. Fireflies filled the cabin and helped the girl as she arranged his bed sheets and prepared a meal for him, understanding her requests and carrying them out eagerly.

The mage asked how she was able to command the fireflies, for he had never seen such an ability before. She explained that the fireflies were her friends, and their loyalty stemmed from the kinship they felt for her. The Firefly Queen was pure of heart, which gave her a strong and bright inner light. The fireflies, whose bodies produced light of their own, could sense this, and so were drawn to her the way many insects were attracted to visual light. The mage thought this was amazing, for he had never met someone pure of heart before. The Firefly Queen was equally impressed with  _him_ , for she had never before met a mage.

In the morning, the Firefly Queen helped the mage find his way home safely. But, much like the fireflies, he felt drawn to her, and so the next night, he got himself lost in the forest intentionally so that he might see her again. Soon the mage was visiting her every night, for the more he got to know her, the more time he wished to spend with her. The Firefly Queen would smile whenever she found him at her doorstep, led by her fireflies and claiming (with mock despair) to be lost, for she felt completely drawn to him as well. It was not long before the two found themselves entirely and hopelessly in love with each other.

But their bliss could not last forever, because the Firefly Queen was being hunted by a sinister group who aimed to use the power of her pure heart for evil. The group had created a terrible and destructive weapon which could destroy the city, and they used this to threaten people and obtain influence and wealth. The weapon required light for power, and so the group targeted the Firefly Queen, for they could use her pure life force as a limitless source of energy.

The mage fought against this group many times in order to protect his lover, but he knew that she needed a way to protect herself in case something happened to him. So he forged a dagger with his magic for her to use in self-defense. Because the mage created the dagger out of pure love, with the intention of keeping someone safe, the blade itself became a tool of light, connected to the hearts of both the mage and the Firefly Queen, and was very powerful.

Then, one day, the group attacked once again, and were able to overpower the mage and kidnap the girl. The group had grown much stronger, as many wicked people, mages and non-magic people alike, had joined the them, lured by the promise of power that their weapon held, and the mage was not strong enough to fight them all. They took the Firefly Queen to a tall tower where they began draining her light and life force. As she weakened, the weapon became stronger, and the group was quickly able to destroy much of the city. While the weapon would not kill her, it would soon drain enough of her strength to keep her from truly being alive.

The mage went after his lover, intent on saving her and destroying the weapon. From the tower, the Firefly Queen could see him fighting her captors, but she saw that they were far too powerful for him, for he was already very seriously wounded and his enemies were vast. If he continued to fight, he would soon die. The Firefly Queen knew that it was already too late for her strength to ever be restored, and she could not bear to watch her lover die trying to rescue her. Although her captors had taken her dagger, she was able to summon it to her due to its unique link to her heart. She went to the window of her room and the mage saw her from the tower and cried out to her, but she only gave him one last, sad smile. Then, with all the strength she had left, stabbed the blade into her heart, for she knew that the only way the mage would stop fighting to save her would be if she were already dead. If he had no reason to come rescue her, then he could survive. 

The moment the dagger pierced her, all the light from the Firefly Queen's heart was released, and the force of such a pure self-sacrifice, combined with the blade's heart magic, erupted in a blinding flash. Through the dagger's power, the light obeyed her dying wish to protect, and overpowered the weapon with enough energy to destroy it in a fierce explosion. The tower crumbled from the blast, and the group's members were crushed.

The mage searched through the rubble for the Firefly Queen and found her aglow with the light of her fireflies, who had led him to her one last time. In his grief over the loss of the woman he loved, the mage longed to follow her into death. He took the dagger, which had been used to kill the very person it had been forged to protect, and tried to take his own life. But the blade became dull and would not pierce him, for the Firefly Queen had given her life in order to save his, and the lingering light in the dagger would not betray her last wish. The mage despaired over his sentence to life, considering it a punishment for failing to save her, but he knew he had no choice but to honor her sacrifice. As she was bound to death, so to was he bound to life, comforted only by his memories of her, until at last, many years later as an old man, he passed away during the night and was reunited with her once again.

By the time Aerith finished her story, the saplings had all been potted.

"Wh…what the hell kind of stupid story is that?" Yuffie sniffed, a rather transparent attempt to pretend she wasn't on the verge of tears.

"I warned you it would be a tragedy," Aerith said with a shrug and a sly smile.

"Yeah, but, I don't see why she had to kill herself in the first place! She didn't have faith that the mage could save her? What kind of love is that? Maybe he could have beat the bad guys and they could have lived happily ever after," Yuffie scoffed.

"Well, I suppose she just didn't want to risk it. She would rather give up her own life than live with the chance that he might die," said Aerith.

"But there could have been some other way, right?"

Aerith shrugged. "Sometimes, the only way to protect something or someone you love is to sacrifice something else."

Yuffie had no reply to that except to complain that she had something caught in her eye.

Aerith turned to Sora. "So, what did you think of it?"

"I thought it was cool how she kept fireflies as pets! That would be so awesome to have bug friends like that!” he said.

Aerith raised an eyebrow. "Well, at least you got something out of it, I suppose. Does the story help at all in your search, though? Does it sound like the kind of thing you and your friends were looking for?"

Sora held his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "I guess that dagger might work. Is it a true story?"

Aerith tilted her head in consideration. "I'm not sure. It's an old Nomura legend, and it's supposed to take place in the city, which seems to give it some credibility. But you know how enthusiastic nationalists like to build up stories like that to make the city-state look good. It's possible that the story was  _based_  on fact, though, however loosely. Historians would know better than I would."

"So what happened to the magic dagger? Do you know where it is?"

"Ah, no. The dagger is said to have been lost for centuries," she answered with a wry chuckle. "If anyone were to find it, then I suppose it would prove the legend true. And we certainly would have heard about it if  _that_ happened. Legend enthusiasts have been searching for the dagger for a long time."

Sora slumped. The one lead they had, as vague and fictional as it might have been, was immediately dashed. But still, he had enjoyed listening to the tale, for Aerith's story-telling was always a pleasant way to pass the time.

The three of them washed up in the store's bathroom, rinsing off enough dirt to fill flowerpots. When they returned to the main room of the shop, they found Tifa inspecting some lilies in interest. She looked up when they entered.

"Ah, there's my waitress," she said to Yuffie. "I've come to collect you so you can do  _my_  bidding now. Are you done being a flower child?"

"Pretty much. We rocked that project, huh, Sora?"

Sora agreed enthusiastically.

"Yes, you'd better be careful, Tifa," said Aerith with a smile, "I might recruit her for  _my_  store if you don't watch out."

Yuffie threw herself to latch onto Tifa's arm. "Don't let me go, Boss," she wailed. "This woman tells sad stories that make me cry! I don't think I could handle any more!"

"What was it this time?" Tifa asked with a smirk.

"The Firefly Queen."

"Oh, god, the  _Firefly Queen_! I remember I saw the Nomura Playhouse do a rendition of that. I'm not usually into things like that, but  _god_  it was beautiful!" Tifa and Aerith then launched into an animated discussion about the play and the legend. Aerith was particularly interested in the costumes used, and Tifa raved over the lead actress, who was apparently quite famous.

"Hey, who's that guy lurking outside the store?" Yuffie asked, peering out the front window into the street.

"What guy?" asked Sora. He was busy watching Roxas chase after a cricket on the other side of the room, chuckling when the cat got himself tangled in the dangling vines of a plant.

"There's some guy standing right over there. It looks like he's staring at the delivery shop for some reason. He's super intense." Tifa and Aerith looked up and went to the window in concern.

"Oh, he's back," said Aerith, nodding with a frown at the figure outside. "That guy's been hanging around all afternoon. He just keeps walking back and forth along the street, and stops every now and then to stare at Cloud's Deliveries for a bit before going away. Then he comes back an hour or two later and does it all over again."

Sora joined them at the window. "Oh, hey, that's Squall Leonhart!" he said. For indeed, the man lurking outside their window, staring hard-faced at the delivery shop, was none other than Nomura's general, though he was in civilian clothes now.

The women turned to him. "Squall Leonhart? As in Cloud's ex-secret lover? The lieutenant?"

"Yeah! I talked to him yesterday. He's a General, now. But he's nice. He has bad hearing, I think."

Tifa's eyes widened. "Oh my god, are you sure? I hardly recognize him!" She squinted critically at the man. "Although, now that I think about it, he does sort of look familiar. He's done something different with his hair. And he definitely didn't have that scar last time I saw him."

"Wait, so he's been staking out the delivery shop all day?" Yuffie asked. "That must mean he's looking for Cloud!"

"But how did he find out Cloud works here?"

"I told him," said Sora. The three women turned to him in alarm.

"You  _what_?"

He told them about his talk with the General the day before, and their eyed widened with each word.

"How  _mortifying_! Sora, how could you  _be_  so indelicate? You really just blurted all that out? And to a  _General_ , no less!" Tifa cried.

Sora shrugged, unashamed.

"Someone should say something to him!" said Yuffie. "I'll go!"

"No way," said Tifa. "The only person here less delicate than Sora would be you.  _I'll_  go."

 Yuffie scoffed, offended, but Tifa's march to the door was blocked by Aerith's arm.

" _I'll_  go," Aerith said firmly in a tone that warned against argument. "You'll just scare him off."

Tifa pursed her lips but said nothing, as it was true. The three of them arranged themselves at the window to gawk while Aerith went out the door. They watched her walk up to the man and speak to him briefly before he departed at a brisk pace. When she came back inside, her audience was all ears.

"He said he was looking for the owner of the delivery shop, for some  _business_  he had. I told him that the owner was out but would be back later, and he left. Neither of us mentioned Cloud by name."

"Where  _is_  Cloud, anyway?" Yuffie asked.

"He said he was going to Cid's for some repairs on his motorcycle," answered Sora.

"Ah, that explains it," Yuffie nodded. "He can spend hours haggling with Cid about bike parts. He cares for that hunk of metal like it was his child."

"So he was really looking for Cloud, then! I wonder what kind of  _business_  he wanted to discuss," said Tifa.

"Maybe he has a  _certain kind of package_  he wants  _delivered,_ " Yuffie smirked.

"Don't be vulgar,” scoffed Aerith. “If anything, he's probably looking for closure. Maybe he just needs to talk to Cloud one last time so he can finally move on with his life."

"Or maybe he wants to get back together!" cried Yuffie.

"Or maybe he wants to murder him. We can't rule that out," said Tifa.

Sora yawned and stretched his arms over his head, bored of the conversation even if he had been the initial cause of the whole mess. It was growing late, after all, and Sora's stomach had started grumbling.

"Welp, I'ma get goin'" he said. He gathered up Roxas and left the three of them to gossip more about Squall's visit and what they should do about it.

Sora went up to his apartment and cooked dinner while the two of them discussed what else they might do to find a sword of light. The only conclusion they came to was that the dagger from Aerith’s story seemed to fit Namine’s description. It had been forged with love by a powerful mage, and apparently had some power over light, which were the only real qualifications they’d been given. Unfortunately, even if the legend of the Firefly Queen were true and the dagger actually existed, it had still been lost for centuries, which was no help. So they were back at square one. Roxas suggested returning to the library, but Sora flatly refused. He was still confident that something would turn up.

It was barely seven o'clock in the evening by the time they had finished eating and washing up, and Sora was feeling restless. So he and Roxas went out for a walk, since the weather was nice out and they had nothing better to do. The streets were quiet save for the festivities of the crickets, but that wasn't so unusual at this time of the evening. Besides, it was quite pleasant to have the streets to themselves, and Roxas could talk without being overheard.

They passed Tidus' house and found him out front, kicking a ball back and forth with several other neighborhood kids Sora was friendly with. Sora joined their game, which had no exact rules or teams, and was all the more fun because of it. He told Tidus about his ventures to the Jenova mansion and about the tea-drinking and biscuit-eating that transpired there. The last bit had Tidus laughing so hard he didn't notice the ball being aimed at him, and so was unprepared when it smacked him in the head.

"What the hell, Yuna!" he sputtered, rubbing the reddening side of his face tenderly. "How could you damage my beautiful face like that?"

Yuna, the guilty offender, was failing miserably at hiding her smile. "But it looks kind of better with that big red mark, you know?" she said as innocently as she could manage. The rest of the group burst into laughter, and the game was renewed with fierce vigor as Tidus attempted to exact revenge on them all.

Soon, the players were called home one by one, either for dinner or for chores that needed finishing, and Sora and Roxas were left wandering the streets once more in the darkening twilight.

They were making their way back home when Sora stopped suddenly in his tracks.

"What's up?" Roxas asked from his shoulder.

"Fireflies."

Roxas looked over and saw that, sure enough, there were several fireflies flitting about a large patch of garden not far from where they stood.

"Yes, fireflies. Very good, Sora. Next week we'll work on identifying butterflies and beetles, too," Roxas deadpanned.

"No, I mean, what if they can help us?"

"They're  _bugs_. How on earth would they help us?"

"Says the  _cat_ ," Sora replied with a cheeky grin.

"Well sure, but when have I ever been any help to you? You're just proving my point," Roxas snorted.

"C'mon, let's go see!" But it wasn't like Roxas really had much of a choice, anyway, since he was riding on Sora's shoulder and would, technically, go wherever Sora went.

The glowing bugs scattered a bit as Sora ran up to them, but they didn't go far. He stood at the edge of the garden, looking up at the blinking lights around him, his excitement radiating from him like steam.

"Excuse me, fireflies!" he called. "I have a question for you and I was wondering if you could help me out!"

Roxas was fairly embarrassed by this ridiculous scene and was grateful that there was nobody around to witness Sora talking to bugs like a crazy person. The fireflies, in any case, did not respond. This did not deter Sora in the slightest.

"I was wondering if any of you have heard of the Firefly Queen!" he continued. And, weirdly enough, this seemed to get the bugs' interest. They stopped darting around the plants and hung in the air as if all their attention was on the human boy shouting at them. Sora figured this was a good sign. "I'm going to take that as a yes, I guess. And if you've heard of her, then I'm sure you must have heard of her magic dagger, right?" The fireflies bobbed and blinked immediately, and even Roxas was impressed by how responsive they were. "Okay, now here's the really tough question, and this is the most important one, so I need you guys to really think about it. Do any of you happen to know where the Firefly Queen's magic dagger  _is_? Cuz I know it was apparently lost a few centuries ago, but if anyone would know where it is, it would be you fireflies, right?"

And suddenly the fireflies began fluttering to and fro, blinking vigorously. They whizzed about Sora's head and nipped at Roxas' tail in a flurry, and Roxas succumbed to his urge to swipe at them.

Startled and overwhelmed, Sora marveled at the bugs. "Could—could you take me to it?"

At that, the fireflies zoomed away from him, forming a line which bobbed and swayed, and began floating off down the street slowly. Sora's face was alight with glee.

"I don't care  _what_  you say, Roxas. There is no way you can deny that it looks like these bugs can take us to that magic dagger," he said.

And, to be honest, Roxas was having as pretty hard time coming up with any other explanation. The cat gave a defeated sigh and shook his head. Of  _course_  Sora would be able to talk to bugs. Typical. Roxas figured he shouldn't be surprised by these kinds of things anymore.

"Yeah, whatever," he grumbled. "Are we gonna follow these things or what?" The fireflies had noticed that Sora was not going after them, and had paused in wait halfway down the street.

"Mm, not yet," Sora said. "We should get Riku, Kairi and Namine to come with us. This is the kind of thing we need a group for. Who knows what kind of obstacles we'll come across."

"Obstacles?"

"Well sure. Even if fireflies are showing us the way, there's bound to be some kind of issue. We're searching for a magic dagger that's been lost for centuries after all. If no one else could find it, then it won't be easy."

"If we run off to get them, the fireflies will probably have wandered away by the time we get back."

"True. We wouldn't want to waste this opportunity. And who knows the next time we'll run into such helpful bugs." His eyebrows knotted together in thought. "Alright, I've got it!" he exclaimed after a moment. "How about you go get everybody while I wait here with the fireflies?"

"What? Why do  _I_  have to go?" Roxas complained. "I can wait here just as well as you can, and it'll be faster if  _you_  go. Just take your bike."

"Yeah, but I'm the one they were responding to. What if they don't want to wait around with a cat? You'll probably try to eat them anyway."

"I won't!"

"C'mon, just do it for me,  _please_? You can take the train, it won't be so bad. And I promise I'll let you eat as much ice cream as you want in exchange! Unlimited ice cream for a whole  _week_!"

The offer was a persuasive one, and after a minute of grumbling, Roxas gave in. He set off grumpily down the street, with thoughts of endless bowls of ice cream spurring him forward as he headed for the train station.

A smile blossomed slowly over Sora's face as he watched Roxas slink around the corner. A month ago, there would have been no way Roxas would have ever agreed to traveling across town and interacting with people on his own, no matter how much ice cream had been promised. So perhaps Cloud had been right. If Sora could keep gently nudging Roxas out of his comfort zone little by little, then he might actually start making some progress on his recovery.

He grinned at the fireflies, but they were oblivious to the milestone they had just witnessed.


	9. The Laughing Mist

The train doors slid open as the announcer declared their arrival at the northern district station. Roxas hopped off the train and onto the platform, ignoring the surprised looks the passengers gave him. Clearly they had never seen a cat take the train before. He made his way out of the station, trotting along with a fair amount of determination, willing away the unease that was creeping into his skin with every step he took.

He was fine. He could do this. It wasn't that hard.

Even if he felt steadily more paranoid that the people around him would step on him, or that the cars driving by would hit him, or that a dog might attack him. And if he strayed to more deserted roads, he began to feel the emptiness like a tangible weight of fear and desolation, reminding him of a completely different city that he never seemed to be able to leave behind completely, and that was even worse. But unfortunately for him, the streets were still as unnaturally deserted as they had been all day, save for the perpetual crowds around the train stations. Perhaps if it had been daylight he would have been better off, but in the darkness of the evening, any small scuffle in a shadowy corner set his teeth on edge. His anxiety intensified, his heartbeat racing faster than it had any right to, and his tail curled nervously between his legs as he weaved through the feet of pedestrians and darted across streets.

He had the gnawing urge to hide under something, which usually happened whenever Sora was out of eyesight, but  _he would not let this beat him_ , he decided. Roxas had a  _job_  to do. Sora was counting on him to bring Riku, Kairi, and Namine to where he and the fireflies were waiting, and Roxas did not want to disappoint him. So he did his best to crush his fears and dark memories, and maybe let his feet run a little bit faster than necessary.

Roxas was nearly trembling when he reached the Jenova mansion, but he was at last able to breathe a sigh of relief. He ducked under the gate and slipped inside through a back door that had been left slightly ajar. The maids and butlers were lounging wearily around a long table, playing card games and chatting pleasantly, apparently resting after a long day's work. He sneaked through the room, avoiding the notice of anyone who might throw him out, until he spotted Kairi. He caught up to her and gave a convincing  _meow_  to get her attention.

Kairi jumped slightly and looked down at him in surprise. "Roxas! What on earth are you doing here?"

Roxas  _meowed_  again before catching the fabric of her dress in his teeth and giving it a light tug. Kairi knelt down to scratch the top of his head tenderly, but he dipped out of her reach.

"What is it?" she asked. "Where's Sora? If you're here, he must be too, right?" She looked around, but frowned when she didn't find him. Roxas tugged on her dress again, then hopped off down the hall a few steps. He turned back to look at her, twitching his tail, trying to get her to follow him without having to speak.

Kairi's sensitive perception picked up on this quickly. "You want me to follow you?"

Roxas yowled in confirmation, relieved that she had caught on so easily.

"What is it? What happened? Is Sora in danger?" Kairi asked with growing alarm.

He wondered how she had come to that conclusion, but he didn't feel like revealing that he could talk just to correct her. If Kairi thought Sora was in danger, it might prove easier to make her follow him. So he yowled again and scratched at the floor impatiently.

"Oh my gosh, he  _is_  in danger!" she gasped. "Was it the shadow monsters again? Is he hurt? Take me to him! No, wait—I'll get Master Riku, too. He'll know what to do!" She rushed off down the hallway.

Roxas grinned in satisfaction as he bounded along after her. This was going well.

* * *

Kairi burst into the library, shattering the oppressive stillness of the room.

"Master Riku!" she cried. "You have to help! Sora's in some kind of danger!"

"What!" Riku nearly shrieked, abandoning the dusty tome he had been thumbing through to appear out from behind the stacks. His eyes were wide with panic. "What do you mean he's in danger?" he demanded.

Namine peeked out from her own spot, a polite frown on her face. Kairi had left Riku and Namine in the library several hours before, as the pressing list of chores she had to do finally outweighed the excitement of an adventure in the famous library. Riku and Namine had spent all afternoon immersed in their research, however, and several small piles of potentially-helpful books had been neatly arranged on a nearby table.

"Roxas is here and he's upset and trying to get me to follow him! I think it means Sora's in danger!"

Riku relaxed, and an expression of relief was visible for a moment until one of annoyance replaced it. "So his cat's here. So what? That doesn't prove anything. Don't scare me like that for no reason."

"You have to believe me, Sir!" Kairi insisted. "Something is wrong! I know it sounds crazy, but I can sense these kinds of things."

He gave Roxas a dubious look, but noticed that the cat  _did_  seem strangely distressed, pacing back and forth by Kairi's feet and trembling slightly. The memory of how intelligent and protective the cat had acted the night Sora had been knocked unconscious by the dirt sprites popped into his mind, and Riku lost conviction in his own words.

"She could be right," Namine broke in thoughtfully, to both Kairi and Riku's surprise—they had almost forgotten she was there. "There have been cases of dogs fetching help when their masters are in danger. It's possible that a cat could do the same. And given that  _I_  was able to overhear your discussion of Xehanort, it isn't  _improbable_  that Xehanort might have heard us as well. He could have gone after Sora once he left the mansion, or he might have sent someone after him—an assassin, maybe. Who knows what kinds of terrible things he could be doing to Sora right now." Namine's impassive delivery made her words all the more terrifying, and Riku and Kairi gaped at her in horror.

"Okay, fine, we'll follow the cat," Riku said, frowning in worry. Perhaps his curse was already starting to hurt Sora. It usually didn't work quite this quickly against someone, but then again, Sora had been pretty sudden about inserting himself into Riku's life. But Riku did his best to shove his fear from his mind—the more he cared about someone, the more they were hurt, after all. If he tried to not be concerned, then maybe Sora would be fine. "Should we bring anything with us?"

The three ran off to their rooms to prepare themselves for all sorts of unknown dangers. They met at the back servant's door ten minutes later, each carrying a small pack, equipped for a journey. Both Namine and Kairi had changed out of their maid uniforms, as there would be high hell to pay with the head housekeeper should their pristine uniforms get dirty in any way; They now each sported practical dresses, thick stockings, and sweaters, good for running around in.

"Alright, cat, lead the way!" said Riku, feeling only slightly ridiculous at have uttered such a sentence. Without further delay, Roxas took off running and the three of them sprinted after him.

* * *

When they rounded the final corner, they found Sora standing idly on the sidewalk, hands in the pockets of his cargo shorts and whistling tunelessly, surrounded by a winking yellow-green cloud of fireflies.

Which was the exact opposite of any kind of danger they had been expecting.

Sora turned at the sound of their footsteps and gave them a sunshine smile. "Hey, you made it!" he called cheerfully. Roxas immediately jumped into his arms and Sora stroked the trembling cat's back soothingly.

"Roxas, I'm so proud of you," he cooed. "I know how tough that must've been, but you did it! You are  _so_  brave!"

Roxas buried his face in the crook of Sora's elbow, purring to calm his nerves. And suddenly he felt safe, full of light and warmth, and all the unreasonable fears that had plagued him melted away in a murky slough.

Meanwhile, the other three had stopped in their tracks, extremely confused. The adrenaline and anticipation that had built up as they rushed off toward what they had thought was a friend in danger now leaked out in a mixture of relief and disappointment, as anticlimactic as a deflating balloon.

"What the hell, Sora! What's going on?"

"Hm? What do you mean?" Sora looked up with an innocent frown.

"We—we thought you were hurt and in danger," said Kairi. "But…obviously you're not."

"No, I'm fine," he agreed.

"Then…why did Roxas come get us?"

"You mean he didn't tell you?" Sora asked.

"How on earth would he have  _told us_? Sora, what is going  _on_?" demanded Kairi in increasing frustration.

Sora looked down at the cat in his arms, who was now significantly calmer than he had been a moment ago. "You didn't tell them, huh? Oh well, that's okay. You did what you could and I'm still proud of you."

" _Sora!_ "

"Okay, okay, so Roxas and I heard about something that we might be able to use as a sword of light. It's been lost for a couple hundred years, but we think we might have a way to find it. So that's why I called you here— to help me get it."

He gave them a brief synopsis of the Firefly Queen story Aerith had told him, and then explained about the strange way the fireflies had reacted to him and what he thought it meant. He finished he speech with excitement, ready to be off on their adventure, but his audience was notably silent.

"Let me get this straight," Riku said slowly, trying to wrap his head around the ridiculousness of the situation. "You…sent your cat to call us all the way over here…to follow some  _bugs_ … because they flew around when you mentioned the Firefly Queen to them?"

"Basically," Sora nodded in satisfaction.

"Sora," Kairi began with a frown, "There's a  _reason_  none of us looked in the fiction section of the library when we were researching. The Firefly Queen is just an old myth, there's no way that dagger is real."

"Aw, c'mon, guys. I really think this'll work! Look, I'll show you." Sora turned to the fireflies surrounding him and, addressing them grandly, said, "Fireflies, could you please show us the way to the Firefly Queen's magic dagger?"

In an instant, the blinking lights of the bugs flickered in a tizzy and formed into a definite line pointing down the road. Sora turned back to three of them with a triumphant grin.

"See? What'd I tell ya? They can totally show us the way!"

"Fascinating," Namine breathed. "It's like they can really understand you." She stepped forward to examine the floating trail of fireflies, frowning in interest when those she approached edged away from her slightly. "Is it something unique about these fireflies or…" she trailed off, lost in her own thoughts.

"So? What d'ya think? Will you come with me?" Sora asked eagerly.

"Stop fooling around, this is a huge waste of time!" said Kairi. "We thought you were in serious danger! If we had known you just wanted to play games, we wouldn't have come. I mean, they really do look like they understand you and all, and yeah, that's kind of weird, but come on, everyone knows that story isn't real—"

"I'll go with you," said Riku, to everyone's astonishment. Including Riku's.

"You will?" said Sora, in excitement.

"You  _will_?" said Kairi, in shock.

Riku shrugged. "Sure, why not? It…sounds like fun." A small, but sincere smile flitted across his face, but was quelled quickly, as if he were embarrassed by it.

Kairi choked with surprise. Never in a million years would Olette or Selphie believe her if she told them that the Ice Prince had decided to do something because it sounded like  _fun_. In fact, in all her experience working in his house, the amount of  _fun_  that an activity might have seemed more like a deciding factor  _against_  it for him. And yet, here he was, agreeing to run around chasing fireflies just because Sora asked him to.

Kairi shook her head in exasperation. "Well fine," she huffed. "You two can run off catching fireflies and singing campfire songs and whatever the hell else children do on summer nights. Namine and I will act like the  _mature_  young  _adults_  we are and continue  _productive_  research."

"Actually, I think I'll be joining them, as well" said Namine. She gave a precise nod to punctuate her decision. "I'd like to observe these fireflies more. There is something peculiar about them, and I intend to find out what. And who knows, maybe they really can lead us to the dagger. I see no harm in giving it a shot."

"What! No  _way_ , you too?" Kairi cried in exasperation. "Why do  _I_  have to be the sensible naysayer here?"

Sora shrugged, smiling. "C'mon, it'll be fun! A real adventure!"

Kairi sighed with her whole body, defeated. She was used to being the silly dreamer whose friends shot down her wild ideas, and she did not particularly enjoy being on the opposite end of this conversation— it made her sound boring and annoying, which she definitely was  _not_. "Alright,  _fine_ , I'll go." Sora cheered happily at the announcement, but Kairi interrupted quickly. "But  _first_  I want us all to take a moment to acknowledge how absurd this is," she added.

"Duly noted," said Riku. Namine nodded in agreement.

This was enough to satisfy Kairi. At least they admitted that the whole idea was crazy.

And with that, they started off down the street, following the line of fireflies into the darkening night in the most peculiar game of Follow the Leader any of them had ever played.

* * *

The fireflies led them west, past the grassy hills where Sora took his best daytime naps and into the western woods. Unlike the forest to the east of Nomura, where the Nothing Man's lair was hidden, the woods bordering the west side of the city followed along an intricate network of small streams and rivers, which wove through the earth like lacework as they made their way toward the ocean about a mile north.

The walk was pleasant, at first, as the evening air was agreeably cool and the moon bright enough to light their way. Soon, however, the trees, thick and lush from the ample water supply, were dense enough to blot out the moon, and the line of fireflies floating dutifully ahead of them became their only source of light, as feeble as it was. When a thin mist began to form over the streambeds, brought on by the night's lower temperature, their poor visibility turned hazardous. They had to be careful not to slip on any mossy rocks or fall into any hidden creeks and so stuck as close together as they could without treading on each other's ankles.

They had no idea where they were being taken, which concerned everyone but Sora, though nobody said anything out loud. In fact, no one said anything at all. Their trek was silent, with everyone focused intently on the tiny trail of light ahead of them, leading them further into the darkness. The forest itself was quiet as well, with only the occasional hoot of an owl or hum of crickets to interrupt their march. The forest seemed hushed in anticipation, each living creature alert, eager, and waiting for…  _something_.

Then, from the depths of the night came a strange sound, quiet at first, as if far away, but it grew steadily louder as it echoed eerily through the trees. It sounded like laughter, soft and bubbling, drifting toward them menacingly, carried along by the rolling waves of mist.

The adventurers stopped abruptly in their tracks, alarmed and wary. Their ears strained as they searched for the source of the sound, but the darkness yielded nothing.

Then the laughter disappeared, gone as suddenly as it started.

"What  _was_  that?" Riku hissed through clenched teeth.

"It—it might have been some birds or something," said Kairi.

"It sounded like someone laughing," Namine said. She tugged on the sleeves of her sweater nervously.

"Yeah, well some birds can sound like that," said Kairi, though she didn't sound too sure of herself.

"C'mon, we're gonna lose the fireflies!" said Sora. Though they had stopped at the strange sound, the fireflies had not, and with a jolt, they jogged to catch up to them, lest their guides leave them behind.

Kairi tripped over an unseen rock on the dark path as she hurried forward, but Riku, closest to her, immediately caught her arm to keep her from falling. Kairi mumbled a thank you, embarrassed at having stumbled in front of him. They both blushed, and Riku released his hold when she proved herself stable.

When they turned to catch up to the others, however, they found themselves suddenly alone in the darkness. The fireflies had disappeared, along with Sora, Namine, and the cat. There was no sound to even indicate that they were anywhere nearby. It was as if the mist had simply swallowed them up.

"Sora!" Riku called. "Blonde maid? Where are you?"

"Her name is Namine." 

"Well either way, she's gone."  He was trying not to panic, but cold dread began to spread through his lungs. "What the hell are we supposed to do?"

"It'll be okay," said Kairi, swallowing thickly, her voice wavering only slightly. "We'll find them. We only stopped for a moment, they can't be too far off. Let's just keep walking. I mean, we're sort of on a trail here, right? If we follow it, we should catch up to them." Riku agreed and they started forward, keeping close enough to brush shoulders as they walked.

"Can you do something with your magic to help, maybe?" she asked. She had never really met a mage or seen much magic up close, but she had grown up hearing all kinds of stories about the miracles mages could perform.

"I could make it colder."

Kairi gave a humorless snort. "I don't think that would help."

"Probably not," he agreed, smiling ruefully. "You didn't happen to bring a lantern, did you?"

"Um, no. I don't have one of my own, and I can't exactly take one from the mansion. Rules are pretty strict about that."

"Oh. Right."

"Do you have one?"

"I forgot to bring one."

"Oh."

The air hung strained between them; It was odd for Master and maid to find themselves in such a situation, wandering lost in the woods now that Sora, their only common denominator, had vanished. Class etiquette had nothing to prepare them for such a scenario.

Their eyes met for an uncomfortable moment and they each gave the other a tight, awkward smile before readjusting their shoulder packs and moving on.

They hurried along the path, keeping a sharp eye and ear out for any movement or sound that might indicate the rest of their group. But there was nothing. Even their own footsteps seemed too quiet in their ears.

And then the laughter started again, sinister and mocking. Kairi latched onto Riku's arm in fright. Riku raised an eyebrow as he peered down at her.

"What's the matter? I thought you said it was just a bird?" he teased.

"Shut up," she hissed, refusing to meet his eyes. "Where the hell is it coming from?"

The laughter grew louder as it echoed all around them. But no one was there. Riku and Kairi were frozen in their spot.

Then a soft chuckle sounded right beside them, as if someone were whispering in their ears. Kairi and Riku shrieked, clutching each other in terror. They whirled around, but found themselves alone. A chill passed over them, as if they had been doused in ice water, then all was silent once more.

Riku and Kairi's eyes met with a mutual understanding that neither would ever mention to anyone that they had made such an embarrassingly undignified noise. Then, in an equally telepathic agreement, they took off running down the path in undisguised fear.

* * *

"Where the heck did they go?" Sora wondered aloud. He looked around at the dark forest behind him and scratched his head. "They were right behind us a second ago."

"Well one thing's for certain— this is no ordinary forest," said Namine, enigmatically.

Sora cocked his head to one side. "What do you mean?" He had never been one to appreciate a good mysterious one-liner, and Roxas would have scoffed at him had it been just the two of them. But the Alexandrian's gaze was a bit too sharp for his liking, so he stayed quiet.

"There's magic here, without doubt. Old magic, seeped into the earth and trees. I can feel it, if only slightly. These woods have old memories."

Namine was unable to elaborate further on what she meant by that because she was interrupted by a far-off scream.

They spun on the spot, trying to locate the source, but the mist had grown too thick to discern anything but the impressions of trees around them, and the sound died away. The following silence was ominous and heavy.

"Fireflies, wait! We have to go back and find our friends!" Sora called to their tiny floating guides.

But the fireflies kept drifting forward, caring not for the missing members of their group or their possibly gruesome fate. 

"Hey, wait! I said stop! Why aren't you listening to me anymore?" Sora huffed in annoyance when they continued to ignore him. Sora and Namine were forced to keep after them or be left behind.

"That must have been Riku and Kairi's scream," said Namine.

"Do you think they're okay?"

"It's hard to be certain. A forest like this is a habitat for many predators, and most of those would be nocturnal. Perhaps they've been attacked by a bear, or maybe a pack of wolves. Or maybe they fell into a ravine, or were crushed by a rockslide. And let's not forget that thieves and criminals often hide out in forests at night—they might have been ambushed and murdered."

Roxas' eyes were impossibly wide with horror, but Sora raised an eyebrow at her coolly. "You like saying creepy things, don't you? Are you a pessimist?"

"I prefer to think of myself as a realist," she said, nodding gravely.

"I think they'll be okay. Riku's a mage, you know—one time he smashed a metal gate! And Kairi has her weird-feeling powers, too. They won't let some bear eat them or whatever."

"That's very optimistic of you," she said with a tone that suggested an optimist was someone to be pitied. "But it's not as if we could search for them, anyway. The fireflies don't seem to be stopping— if we turned back we'd be just as lost as your friends. And really, we're in just as much danger as they are."

Sora considered her for a moment with an undecipherable expression before turning his attention back to the fireflies ahead of them.

Except that the cluster of fireflies seemed a bit smaller than it had earlier—the line was both shorter and thinner, but almost imperceptibly so, and for a moment, Sora wondered whether he was imagining it. But as he watched their lights blinking on and off, he noticed some lights never seemed to reappear. Fireflies were simply vanishing in the seconds between their flickers.

“Look, some of them are disappearing!” cried Sora. “Where are you fireflies going?”

"Maybe they got bored of helping you," Roxas muttered quietly into Sora's ear.

"What? That's totally rude!" said Sora, affronted. "What're people gonna think of you if you don't follow through on your promises, huh?" As someone who took promises very seriously, he considered this a serious offense.

"Maybe this whole thing has been a trap," mused Namine. "Xehanort could be waiting somewhere to attack us, now that we're alone in the woods." But Sora wasn't convinced.

They continued following after the slowly shrinking cluster of fireflies, helpless to stop the handful of tiny, glowing deserters steadily abandoning them.

Meanwhile, the mist had grown into a dense fog around them, and they couldn't see more than a few feet ahead. Shadows and shapes emerged and sank behind its veil, and though Sora knew that they were probably only trees, some of the shapes seemed to move along with them, stalking them slowly.

Roxas was shivering on his shoulder, and Sora knew it wasn't from the cold. He put up his hand to sooth the cat, but got his thumb bitten for his effort. Sora scowled at him, but the cat had a look in his eye that meant he was too riled up to let anyone touch him. Sora rolled his eyes at the general weirdness of cats and rubbed his wounded thumb.

"What was that?" Namine hissed suddenly, staring intently to her left.

"Hm? What was what?" Sora followed her gaze but found nothing interesting.

"There was something there…but it's gone, now. You didn't see it?"

"No."

"Keep an eye out. It looked big. A bear, maybe."

As they went, Namine stopped several more times to suddenly point out threatening figures in the dark, each time startling an increasingly tense Roxas, who had begun sinking his claws into Sora's shoulder enough to leave obvious holes in his shirt. Sora, however, never seemed to see whatever it was Namine saw; He tried opening his eyes overly wide, or else squinting them into narrow slits, but nothing made any difference—Whatever monsters lurked always seemed to slip away by the time Namine called attention to them. Sora was understandably disappointed by this.

But though they kept a sharp watch over the shadows around them, no bear or murderers seemed eager to jump out at them and they continued along their path unimpeded.

The real issue to worry about, though, was the fireflies—or, rather, the lack thereof.

By now, their firefly guard had dwindled to five, then four, then two—until only one solitary bug remained flickering faintly ahead of them. And then that one, too disappeared, blinking out of existence, leaving the boy, girl, and cat stranded in the darkness.

* * *

Riku and Kairi had slowed down their run into a nervously-brisk walk. It was dangerous to run when it was so difficult to see one's footing, after all, and a twisted ankle was the last thing either of them needed. Besides, nothing seemed to be actively chasing them. They hadn't encountered the ghostly laughter since the initial scare, and nothing worse had appeared, to their relief.

The mist was ominous, though, and couldn't be trusted, so they refused to let down their guard lest something decide to jump out at them. Their shoulders were tense enough to hurt as they hurried onward.

They had seen no sign of the rest of their group, which weighed on them heavily. Where had they gone? Had they been attacked? Were they hurt? There was no telling.

And so the two of them trudged along, cold, miserable, and lost.

And quiet, too. Riku wasn't exactly one to engage in small-talk, and it wasn't Kairi's place, as a maid in his household, to strike up a conversation with the nephew of her employer. But this silence was nearly painful in its awkwardness, and Kairi had to do  _something_  about it or her nerves would burst. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched, that strange prickle at the back of the neck, and she desperately needed to ignore it, for fear of finding that something out there actually  _was_  watching her.

She glanced over at Riku, and even in the darkness she could see that he was scowling fiercely, eyes narrow and jaw set—the expression he usually wore when she saw him about the mansion. Any words that might have been on her tongue fizzled at his cruel look. He was simply too intimidating to talk to.

Kairi sighed at her predicament.

"What?" Riku snapped suddenly, startling her enough to make her flinch.

"W-what?" 

"Did you say something?" he asked tersely.

"No."

"Oh, I thought I heard you say something."

"I didn't."

He grunted in response and picked up his pace a bit. Kairi eyed him warily as she trotted along at his elbow, wondering how Sora always seemed to break through Riku's icy character as easily as he did. After a moment, she swallowed thickly, gathered up a bit of courage, and opened her mouth.

"Um," was the best that she could manage. She felt stupid.

"What?" he snapped again, and even though she knew it was coming, she still jumped.

"Well, um, I just…you, you seem to be pretty good friends with Sora, huh?" Riku made no response. But she pressed on, her need to dispel the forest's sinister aura through conversation overriding her fear of her surly companion. It was useless chatter, sure, but her chest was clenched tightly and the prickle on her neck was now more like a physical grip—someone was watching them, someone was following them, she just  _knew_  it—and she needed to focus on something beside her own panic. "I think that's nice," she ventured.

"Okay." 

"Sora's a pretty odd guy, I've never met anyone quite like him," she tried again. She figured if the topic was Sora, the only person she had ever seen Riku smile for, he might be more willing to talk. It was the only thing he and Kairi had in common, anyway.

"I guess."

"I mean, if anyone else had suggested that I follow fireflies around in a forest at night, I would have just called them crazy and that would be that. But somehow Sora got us all to go with him," she continued, chuckling weakly.

"Yeah, and look where it got us. Lost in some creepy woods."

Kairi had nothing to say to that. Perhaps trying to have a conversation was a bad idea after all. She decided to give up her attempts, and the two of them continued on in silence for a bit.

Which made it all the more surprising when it was Riku who spoke next. "So are you and Sora, um…Are the two of you, well... _involved_?" he asked, haltingly, as if speaking pained him.

"Are we what?"

"You know…is he your intended? Is he, ah,  _courting_  you? I—I don't know how a proletarian would say it."

Kairi choked with surprise and swallowed a startled laugh. "What?  _Courting_  me? You mean, are we dating? N-no, we're not, nothing like that." She glanced at him curiously from the side of her eye. "Why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "Just trying to be friendly," he grit through his teeth. "Get to know Sora's friends or whatever."

Kairi raised a doubtful eyebrow at him, though Riku didn't see it, since he was staring resolutely ahead of him.

But Kairi decided to take what she could get and remember that she was lucky the situation wasn't any worse. Riku was better by far than his cruel cousins, at least. And besides, maybe this was considered friendly by the Ice Prince's cold standards.

What she was curious about, though, was why he had asked that particular question.

"No, we're not together that way," she repeated, watching Riku closely to gage his reaction. He didn't appear to have any that she could tell, however, aside from a slight relaxation of his stiff shoulders. "Actually, I've known him for as long as you have. I was there when he ambushed you and made you his friend. I had given him that chocolate he gave to you."

"Yes, I remember," Riku said, and Kairi could have sworn that he almost smiled, though it was too dark to be sure. "I suppose I should be thanking  _you_  for the chocolate, then, shouldn't I?" he continued after a moment, his tone softening into something resembling conversational. "The famous Kalm chocolate, if I'm not mistaken?"

Kairi's face split into a surprised smile. "Yeah, I grew up there. My grandmother sends me some every now and then. I'm impressed you could tell what kind of chocolate it was just from the taste."

" _Please_ , any noble worth his salt can distinguish Kalm chocolates from ordinary ones. Especially if his family collects their taxes." He flicked his hair from his face with a dramatic air of haughty pride before giving her a wry but genuine smile to show he meant it as a joke.

"I suppose you've earned your right to rule, then, M'lord," Kairi laughed, giving him a mock-bow in return.

Riku chuckled—quietly, yet loud enough that Kairi was sure she heard it. "I visited Kalm with my parents once, a long time ago. It was nice. Quaint, but peaceful."

Kairi smiled at him, elated at how, well— _pleasant_  their conversation had become. It seemed that she had managed a small glimpse of a side to the Ice Prince likely only Sora was privy to and she suddenly wondered less at Sora's attachment to him.

Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention and Kairi froze, her heart skidding and her mood plummeting instantly. She stared into the fog, wondering what it was that had caught her attention.

She thought she saw something large in the distance, something strange. But then the fog shifted and it disappeared.

Riku stopped beside her, and followed her gaze.

"What did you see?" he asked in a low voice.

"I—I don't know. Something. There was something moving over there," she whispered back. She swallowed nervously, afraid to even breath, and clutched her arms tightly to her chest.

The two of them spent the span of several heartbeats searching the wall of mist, but all seemed still once more. Perhaps she had imagined it.

"Come on, let's just keep moving," Riku whispered. Kairi agreed and they continued on, several degrees more cautious than they had been before. Their brisk walk seemed more like a light jog now, and they did not resume their conversation.

Of course, there was no question as to  _where_  exactly they were going. They could only hope that the general direction of  _forward_  would bring them closer to wherever Sora and Namine had ended up.

The fog welled up around them like an ocean wave as they went, nipping at them with cold fingers, and Kairi tugged her sweater close. She could barely make out her feet below her, with how difficult it was to see in the thick mist, and she worried that she might run headlong into a tree.

There was a sudden, sharp yelp of distress from Riku. Kairi turned to see what the matter was—and stopped short when she didn't find him. The spot where Riku had been beside her a moment ago was abruptly empty.

"Master Riku?" she called, voice wavering.

There was no answer. Riku had disappeared without a trace, and it appeared to Kairi that the mist had claimed another victim.

* * *

"Now what?" Sora huffed, irritated. "I don't see any stinkin' dagger." This adventure hadn't been much fun at all, in his opinion. At least the Nothing Man quest had been exciting.

"Hold on, let me get my lantern out," said Namine. She spent a moment rustling through the contents of the bag she had been carrying and emerged with a small gas lantern hanging from a wire handle. She held it up in front of her to turn it on, and the resulting light cast gruesome shadows across her pretty face, the way a person might look while telling campfire ghost stories to scare children. Roxas thought she might have been doing it intentionally, because she had wide-eyed expression on her face, like she expected a reaction from Sora. But instead of being frightened, all Sora did was ask:

"Have you had that the whole time?" 

"Of course," Namine replied. "It would have made it harder to see the fireflies if I had used it before now, but it's proved handy after all."

Sora accepted this with a shrug. The lantern didn't do much to penetrate the dense fog, but at least they could see each other more clearly.

"Do you see that up there?" Namine narrowed her eyes and lifted her lantern to point into the fog ahead of them.

Sora squinted off in the direction indicated, his face screwed up with concentration. It was too dark to see much of anything, even with the lantern, and Sora wondered idly how Namine managed to keep picking out mysterious things when he could find nothing at all. His brow furrowed for a moment…And then he saw it. There, hidden behind the thick curtain of fog loomed a dark shadow, made strange and misshapen by its obscurity. Sora blinked in surprise. 

"Is it a bear?" he asked. He crept forward tentatively, and as he did so, a shy breath of wind ushered a swell of mist into retreat. The shape was revealed with sudden clarity, and they discovered with some alarm that they were much closer to it than they had thought—another moment and they would have run right into it.

Luckily, it was not a bear. At first, no one was quite sure  _what_  it was, really, and they hesitated for a tense moment.

They seemed to have arrived at small spot of clearing, and the moonlight filtered down enough to illuminate the thing before them slightly. It appeared to be some sort of structure. Stone was stacked into a tall, rectangular mass, at least ten feet tall, surrounded by a heap of decaying wood and mulch which seemed to be easing its way back into the earth. They approached it when nothing immediately jumped out to attack them, and began examining their discovery with interest.

"Modern art?" guessed Sora.

"It looks like the remains of an old building," said Namine. She picked her way carefully over the muddy, decomposing logs and stopped in front of the stone structure, shining her light over it. "I think this is a chimney here. See how it's hollow in the middle? This would have been the hearth." Sora followed after her, and when he was close enough, he decided that it did rather resemble a chimney, though crumbling and solitary.

Roxas jumped down from Sora's shoulder to investigate for himself. He crept over to the dark, gaping mouth of the hearth and peered inside, but the cobwebs draping it sent him into a sneezing fit. So instead Roxas turned to the mounds of wood surrounding them, full of bugs and interesting smells and plenty of nooks to crawl into—the perfect playground for a curious cat.

"It must not have been a very big building," said Sora.

"Probably about large enough for a modest cabin," Namine mused as she continued wandering around the clearing. "These flat stones here would have been part of the foundation, and this here must have been a wall. See how the stones are stacked?"

"So spies from Alexandria know a lot about buildings, huh?" said Sora, impressed. He was sizing up the chimney, wondering how he might climb to the top of it. It wasn't too tall, he figured, and there were sure to be footholds in the crumbling stone. This adventure had improved quite a bit in Sora's esteem now that he had something to climb.

"Not generally, no. I just happen to have a bit of a passing interest in archaeology. But in any case, it's not really that hard to figure out what this is. Ah, look, here's another wall. And oh, what's that over there?" Namine's voice and her small bauble of light grew fainter as she wandered off, exploring whatever secrets the old cabin's remains had to offer her.

Sora found a proper foothold and began inching his way up the chimney. It was much dirtier than he expected, which made it difficult to keep his grip, but the challenge made it more exciting. Even in the dark, the view from the top would be fun and he was determined to reach it.

Roxas poked his head out from the hollow of a log, with a tumble of cobwebs and leaves arranged around his ears like a fashionable ladies' hat. He looked around for a moment before catching sight of Sora, who had gotten about halfway up the chimney. "Where'd Namine go?" he asked.

"She went over there, I think," Sora answered, pointing in the direction he had last heard her footsteps crunching on the timber. He nearly lost his balance from doing so, however, and quickly latched his hand back onto the stone.

Roxas emerged fully from his spot and scurried over the wood, his ears swiveling intently. "I don't hear her anymore," he said, worried.

"Eh? You don't? She was just here a minute ago. Let me get up here, then I'll be able to see where she went." Sora gave a small grunt of effort before he at last reached the top of the chimney and pulled himself up to sit on its edge. He gave a shout of triumph at his success before he set to his new task. From his elevated position, the small clearing was quite visible, and his view of the building's remains now took a distinctly house-shaped outline. He squinted in the darkness, glad that most of the fog seemed to have passed, and searched for a patch of light and a blonde head ambling about below him.

"Uh oh," Sora frowned.

"What?" called Roxas.

"She's gone."

"What!"

"I don't see her anywhere." He made a face. "How come everyone keeps disappearing?"

"Why is it that every time we go wandering around a forest something terrible happens?" Roxas groaned. "I knew this was a stupid idea. Next time,  _I'm_  deciding what we do! We'll go to the beach or something, have a picnic. No more of this stupid shit. You hear me, Sora? Are you listening?"

But Sora, of course, was not listening.

* * *

Kairi was afraid. There was no point trying to convince herself that she wasn't.

Riku had vanished, and no amount of shouting for him had brought him back. Panic descended like a swarm of wasps, and the eyes she felt on her were instantly more menacing now that she was alone.

A low moan sounded from somewhere within the trees, far more terrifying than the laughter that had haunted them earlier. Unable to stand it any longer, her feet took off running before she even realized what she was doing, her breath ragged and uneven from fear. The trees seemed to swipe at her as she hurtled through them, their branches like spindled claws, and she twisted frantically to avoid their reach.

Something glimmered out of the corner of her eye and she whipped around to find it, determined to see at last this horrible ghost who pursued her and snatched up her friends. If she was going to die, after all, she had to at least know the cause.

What she found was a tiny pinprick of light, as if some invisible specter where holding a small flickering candle. She blinked at this vision, confused. And then she gasped in realization.

It was a firefly.

She wasted no time as she sprinted toward it. The firefly seemed to recognize that it had her attention, and when she was almost upon it, it started drifting away. She followed dutifully, hoping it would help her find the rest of her group, or at least a way out of this damned forest. At this point, either was fine with her.

What it actually led her to was a small clearing in the trees where a small tower loomed against the moonlight. The firefly had stopped to hover over a patch of flowers and gave no indication that it planned on leading her any further. She frowned.

"Hey, who's that?" a familiar voice called. "Oh, look, it's Kairi! Hey Kairi! Over here!"

Kairi looked up, towards the top of the strange tower and saw the silhouette of a head of messy hair and a lanky arm waving at her cheerily.

"Sora!" she cried with relief.

Sora scrambled down from his perch and she met him eagerly. There was a scraping noise coming from what looked like a pile of old timber, and she recognized Roxas's light fur and large ears. Kairi had never been so happy to see a cat in her life.

"So I lose one friend and find another!" Sora was laughing. "Funny how that happens, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"We lost Namine," he explained. "I don't know what happened, I think she just wandered off."

"I lost Riku, too! He was right behind me, then I heard him shout and he disappeared. And I have this feeling like someone's watching me, and there was this crazy laughter and it was terrifying and—oh I'm just so glad I found you!" Kairi threw herself at Sora and held him in a tight embrace, trembling with fright.

Sora patted her back awkwardly. "Aw, don't worry. We'll find them." Kairi released him with a watery smile. "In the meantime, look at this! Namine says it's an old cabin. This is the chimney here, and I climbed to the top! It was totally awesome!"

"Yeah, I saw you," laughed Kairi. Sora's unchanging carefree attitude was immensely reassuring, and she felt the edge of her panic start to smooth out. She allowed herself to be shown around the ruins of the cabin and wondered who would have wanted to live here, alone in such an eerie forest.

They swapped stories about what had happened to them since they'd been separated, and though Sora didn't seem particularly worried about Riku ("he'll be fine, he's a mage, after all!") Kairi frowned when he told her about how the fireflies had abandoned them.

"So where do you think the Firefly Queen's dagger is, then?" she wondered aloud. "Is it here, maybe? This is where the fireflies left you, and one led me here, too. Maybe it's buried around here somewhere."

"Maybe," said Sora, looking at the ground thoughtfully. "I guess we should start looking around." He wandered back to the chimney and began snooping around the base of it.

"Roxas, check inside here," Sora said to his cat, pointing to the chimney's old fireplace. Roxas gave him a reproachful look. "Aw, come on! It might be in there somewhere! You're covered in cobwebs already, how much worse can it be in there?" But Roxas seemed perfectly happy to simply sit on the pile of wood and watch him.

Kairi left them to it as she poked tentatively around the piles of rotted wood.

Then the bushes on the edge of the clearing gave a sudden violent rustle, startling her enough to make her squeak embarrassingly. The sound caught the attention of Roxas and Sora, too.

"Something's there," she whispered nervously.

Sora came to stand by her side and the two of them squinted into the darkness. They heard leaves crushed under heavy footsteps followed by a low moan. Kairi recognized the sound as the one that had scared her earlier, right after Riku had vanished. 

"It's coming," Sora said, low and intense. "When it gets close enough, we'll leap out at it."

"What?" Kairi hissed, alarmed.

"We'll get it before it can get us! Maybe it's the thing that took Riku and Namine. If we catch it, it can tell us where they are." He was humming with excited energy.

Kairi could only nod uncertainly.

The monster was moving toward them in the trees and they could just make out a hulking figure with a stumbling, limping gait in the darkness. The monster moaned again just as it stepped into the clearing.

"Now!" shouted Sora. He and Kairi lunged with all their might at the shadowy figure.

As they flew toward the monster, the moonlight fell over it, revealing a familiar shade of silver hair and jade-green eyes that grew wide at the sight of them. But they had put too much force behind their leap, and neither Sora nor Kairi could stop their impressive momentum as they landed, tumbling painfully over their target and knocking him flat onto the dirt with a solid thud.

Sora peered down sheepishly into the face of their victim.

"Oh hi Riku!" he said with a smile.

Beneath them, Riku wheezed, trying to regain the air that had been soundly knocked out of him.

Kairi scrambled off the nobleman's chest, horrified and embarrassed at their mistake. Sora did not seem to be as concerned, and he only laughed as he stood. He offered Riku his hand and Riku leveled a deadly glare at Sora before allowing himself to be helped up.

"We thought you were a monster!" Sora laughed. "You should have seen the look on your face when we jumped at you! It was too funny!" His laughter was contagious, and Kairi struggled against joining him. She clasped her hand over her mouth to mask her grin.

Riku was not impressed. He rubbed his back with a pained moan—the same moan that Kairi had assumed belonged to a monster, she realized with a flush.

Now that they had a better look at him, though, it was clear why they had not recognized him initially. Riku was dripping wet and covered in mud. His pristine clothes were drenched and soggy, making him look bulkier than he usually was, and his hair was tangled and dirty, making him look wild and inhuman. He seemed to have hurt his leg and was favoring it carefully, explaining the limping way their supposed monster had approached with. His glare was recognizable enough, however, though he now looked more like a miserable, half-drowned dog with the way his damp hair clung to his face and neck.

"What happened to  _you_?" Sora snorted once he had taken in the disheveled appearance of his friend. "Lose a fight with a swamp monster?"

"I slipped on some moss or something and fell down a hill into a stream," Riku grumbled. This only made Sora laugh harder, and Riku's muddy cheeks turned pink in embarrassment. "Shut it, you!" he snapped. Sora stifled his laughter, but his quiet smirk wasn't any better.

"I thought a monster had gotten you or something," said Kairi. "I turned around and you'd disappeared! I'm glad you're okay!"

"Whatever," Riku mumbled. He picked a muddy leaf out of his hair and took a step forward, but his toe caught something lying hidden in the grass and he stumbled forward.

Without warning, all three of them were whisked upward in a violent lurch. When they recovered from a moment of disorientation, they discovered that they were now tangled together in a net hanging high in a tree.

"A tripwire?" Riku groaned wearily. "Are you  _serious_? I'm so fucking sick of this place!"


	10. The Crow's Bargain

A cool night breeze whistled through the trees, causing a net hanging high amongst the branches to sway slightly. The net's occupants were likewise swayed as well, which knotted them together further as they continued squabbling with each other.

"Sora, stop wiggling, you're making it worse! And watch your elbow! You're going to give me a black eye!"

"Ah, Master Riku, would you mind—you're stepping on my shoulder."

"Oh, I apologize, let me—"

"Gah! Riku that was my nose!"

"Well move your nose, idiot!"

The net was jostled as Sora, Kairi, and Riku wrestled to sit comfortably in their trap, a flurry of limbs that ultimately did nothing to ease their situation. An ill-placed knee to the ribs caused a tussle between Sora and Riku, who began kicking and pinching each other like naughty schoolchildren.

"Alright  _alright_ , everybody just calm down okay?" Kairi huffed. She was, of course, ignored. "Hey, cut it out, will ya? Ow! Alright  _stop_! What the hell is the  _matter_  with you two?" The hitting and hair-pulling ceased at her suddenly dangerous tone, and the boys offered her guilty smiles. Kairi was less than impressed. "Let's think of a way down from here. Anyone have any ideas?"

"If you think of anything, could you let me know?" called a voice nearby.

Surprised, the three turned to find the speaker, and because the worst of the mist had cleared, they found Namine hanging in a net identical to theirs a few trees away. She still had her lantern, and it glowed warmly around her net like a miniature moon.

"Namine!" called Sora in a tone of pleasant surprise, as if he had run into her at the market instead. "What are you doing up here?"

"Ah, well, it's quite embarrassing, but I was looking around the ruins of the cabin, and it seems I set off a tripwire and wound up in a net. I assume something similar has happened to you all?" she asked. She managed to sit in her trap with prim composure, as calm as if they were discussing the weather.

"So that's where you disappeared to! No wonder I couldn't see you anywhere," Sora nodded. "And yeah, Riku wasn't looking where he was stepping and now we're here."

"Well  _maybe_  if  _certain people_  hadn't jumped out and  _attacked_  me, I wouldn't have tripped over the tripwire in the first place," Riku growled, moodily. He folded his arms over his chest, but the fearsome look he was aiming for was lessened significantly due to fact that he was drenched and muddy.

Sora only laughed at the memory. "But we thought you were a monster, so of course we would attack you!" He was grinning in a way that made it impossible to stay mad at him, and it was all Riku could do to keep his scowl from slipping into a smile.

"It doesn't matter how we got up here, it only matters how we get down," Kairi said, hoping to avoid another tussle.

"I have a knife in my bag we could use to cut the net," offered Riku.

"Great, where's your bag?"

"It's um…" He twisted to look around for the bag he had been holding moments before. Then he spotted it below them, sitting tauntingly in the dirt, and his stomach sank in disappointment. "down there," he mumbled.

"Good," Kairi sighed. Her neck hurt from the angle she was crouched in, and her leg was beginning to fall asleep, crushed as it was beneath Sora, who was a lot heavier than he looked.

"Roxas!" Sora shouted. Both Riku and Kairi flinched, as he was practically yelling in their ears. "Roxas get your fuzzy butt over here! Help us down!"

"And how exactly is your cat going to help us down?" Riku asked, annoyed.

Roxas came trotting over and sat himself directly beneath them. He wore the distinctive feline expression of bored derision, and if Riku and Kairi didn't know any better, they'd say the cat looked like he was laughing at them.

"Okay Roxas, Riku says there's a knife in his bag there next to you. Could you  _please_  find it and cut us down?" Sora asked.

Roxas raised a cat eyebrow, skeptical, and said nothing.

"Don't be a jerk! Get us down from here!" Sora pleaded. "How am I gonna feed you if I'm stuck in a tree for the rest of my life, huh? I  _know_  you can do it, don't give me that look. You did it when we fought the Nothing Man, you can do it here for sure!"

Roxas' ears folded back grumpily, and he glanced meaningfully over Riku, Kairi, and Namine before glaring back at Sora.

Sora only rolled his eyes. "It'll be alright, they won't care. No big deal."

Roxas gave a look clearly expressing what he thought of  _that_.

"But Roooxaaass!" Sora whined, "It's the only way! We  _need_  you. Like, what if there really is a monster or something? If you don't help us, whoever put these nets here could come and eat us or whatever. You're our  _only hope!_ "

Roxas' face was scrunched with inner contention, and he crouched on the ground unhappily. Sora could tell Roxas was close to cracking, so he broke out his best puppy-dog eyes and pressed his face up against the rope, like a prisoner holding the bars of his jail cell. "Please save us! Pleeeeeaaassse!"

"Cut that out, it's annoying,"snapped Riku. "You're cat can't help us." He and the girls were trying to think of ways down, but Sora's usual antics were making it difficult to concentrate.

But Sora ignored him and continued his prolonged 'please' with a trembling look at the cat.

"Fine, I'll do it. Just shut up already, you look pathetic," Roxas grumbled at last.

Riku, Kairi, and Namine all started in shock. Before their eyes, the cat below stood up on his hind legs, suddenly growing much taller, then much more human-shaped, until a boy had replaced the cat. Roxas stretched his back in an arch and was rewarded with a satisfying crack. He brushed the cobwebs out of his hair, then rubbed his bare arms and flexed his toes in an attempt to warm them slightly. He was much colder as a human, for he was shoeless and wore only a white t-shirt and khaki pants—definitely a downgrade from his complete fur coat.

"What the fuck?" gaped Riku. "What the  _actual_   _fuck_!"

Kairi's shocked face echoed the sentiment.

Roxas spared them an irritated 'tch' before he began rummaging through Riku's bag beside him.

"H-hey what are you doing!" Riku shouted, alarmed. It was his bag, after all, and strange, shape-shifting creatures were not allowed to look through it at will.

"What's it look like, asshole? I'm getting your stupid knife to cut you down," Roxas snapped. "Or would you rather stay up there?" He found the knife at last, and waved it in front of him as proof.

Riku frowned, but said nothing, still recovering from the shock.

Roxas stood and began cutting away at the rope he could reach in silence, and soon had created a hole big enough for the three captives to slip through. As they helped each other down, he moved on to Namine's net and let her out as well.

"Yahoo! Roxas saved us!" Sora cheered, running up to his friend. He clapped a hand around Roxas' shoulder, rough with excitement. "You are so completely awesome! I'm super proud of you!"

Riku and Kairi approached cautiously, each gawking at him as if he might change form into something stranger still.

"Whatever," Roxas mumbled, nervous and tense with everyone's attention on him. "I'll just, um, go back to..." He shifted slightly, hoping to turn back into his more comfortable feline form without trouble.

"Oh no you don't," said Riku, picking up on his plan. "You don't get to just pop back into a cat after this stunning reveal. You stay right where you are—and stay  _what_  you are, too." He then rounded on Sora. "He's been a shape-shifter this whole time? You knew about this?" he demanded.

"Well duh," Sora shrugged. "Here, why don't I do some introductions," he said, waving an arm in an official manner. "Everyone, this is my friend Roxas, he's a shape-shifter who prefers to be a cat because of reasons. But don't ask him about it, he'll tell you when he's ready. He's still working through some personal issues, and we should all respect that."

"Hi Roxas," Kairi and Namine chimed together. Roxas gave a small, stiff wave.

"First the blonde maid turns out to be a spy, then the cat turns out to be some kid," Riku huffed. "What's next, Miss Kairi turns out to be a fairy princess?"

"Who says I'm not?" Kairi grinned.

Sora laughed and Namine smiled behind her hand, but Riku had turned a severe frown to Roxas.

"So, what, you just go around as a cat and  _conveniently_  forget to mention that you're a human? That's kind of  _weird_  if you ask me," Riku sneered. He looked Roxas over with an expression innate to the upper class, which causes the receiver of such a gaze to become suddenly self-conscious of their apparently substandard appearance.

"Whatever, you _conveniently_  didn't tell anyone that fucking shadow monsters were devouring your soul," Roxas shot back. "I don't see much difference." But he stood up straighter and tugged at his dingy t-shirt as if doing so might make it more presentable, all the same—Riku had learned that particular look from his uncle Sephiroth, after all, and it was a powerful one.

At Roxas' words, however, Riku's eyebrows rose high enough on his forehead to disappear underneath overgrown bangs, and he grit his teeth as the full implication of the shape-shifter's revelation hit him. Every personal secret he had confided to Sora had been spoken in the presence of the cat, after all, and to discover that things he'd never confessed to anyone else had unwittingly been told to this stranger was more than a little unsettling. Riku's throat constricted in panic.

"Oh, come on, guys. Let's just be friends!" Sora insisted, as if making friends was as easy for everyone else as it was for him. "Besides, you two have a lot in common, so it's dumb to be mad about nothing. No fighting, okay?"

One thing that Roxas and Riku had in common, at least, was that they were willing to do just about anything Sora asked them to. And so, though they eyed each other warily for a long moment, they agreed with a tight, wordless nod of understanding to hold off on their quarrel— within reason, at least.

"Well, I  _suppose_  if Roxas decides he likes running around as a simple cat, then that's his prerogative," said Riku with a lofty shrug. "Mentally unbalanced, maybe, but hey, it's your life."

"Thank you," Roxas said through pursed lips. "And I suppose you're an expert on being unbalanced, aren't you? What with all the falling into muddy streams and all." He nodded at Riku's mud-covered clothes and dripping hair, one eyebrow raised testily.

Riku's cheeks heated immediately, and his lips curled back in a sneer.

But whatever undoubtedly brilliant retort he might have made was interrupted when familiar, ethereal laughter rang out around them as suddenly as a bell.

The group froze where they stood, tense and alarmed at the return of the eerie laughter. A cold chill passed over them in a sweep of breeze, causing the remaining mist to swirl like lazy tide pools around them. Hearts pounded and hands clenched.

Something was coming. Or, rather, something was already there.

"You're all so funny, I can hardly stand it," laughed the unearthly voice.

The group jumped with shock. They turned slowly, almost unwillingly, toward the source, not entirely sure they wanted to find out who  _or what_  was behind the ghostly laughter that had haunted them all evening.

What they found was a girl sitting on a heap of logs as if it were a throne. She was surrounded by—or perhaps composed of—a soft golden glow which flickered slightly like a candle flame. She was not entirely solid, but instead resembled the sort of pale reflection one might see when looking in a dark window. It was difficult to make out her features, for they were blurred and hazy, as if she could not decide what she looked like. Despite her unclear face, however, they had the impression that she was giving them a mischievous grin.

"What the  _what_?" breathed Kairi, eyes wide with alarm. That seemed to sum up the feelings of the rest of the group, who all stood with mouths agape and faces pale.

The apparition laughed again at their reaction. "Oh my, are you frightened of me?" she asked, tilting her head with curiosity.

"Well that depends," hedged Sora. "Are you a ghost?"

"Hm, maybe," she said in a thoughtful, sing-song voice. Then she laughed again. "Everyone is always frightened of me these days, but I can't help myself. It's just too funny when I scare them, even if I don't mean to." She paused for a moment, looking at them.

"Boo!" she tried suddenly, and they all jumped. Both Kairi and Roxas' feet nearly left the ground, their flinch was so severe. She laughed again, throwing her head back merrily.

"I guess it's a little comforting to know there actually  _was_  a ghost all along, and that I wasn't just imagining things," said Kairi feebly. Having her fears realized could have been worse, she figured. At least the ghost seemed content to simply sit and make fun of them, rather than something more gruesome.

"Oh gosh, when the tall one tripped and fell into the stream! That was too funny! And the girl thought a monster had eaten him, when really he was just too embarrassed to call for help!" laughed the ghost. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"I—uh, no. I'm fine," answered Riku, both unnerved and embarrassed to have a ghost laughing at his clumsiness.

"And the cat!" she continued. "That one definitely surprised me! But it's good he was there to help you down. I'm sorry you got caught in the nets. She always was very efficient when it came to her traps, so I'm not surprised they still work after all this time."

"Who was?" asked Sora suddenly.

"Hm?" asked the ghost.

"Whose traps? You know who put these nets here?"

"I…what?" the question seemed to throw her. "No, I don't know who put them here, why do you ask?"

"But you just said! You said 'she was always efficient with her traps' didn't you? 'She' who?" Sora insisted.

"I…" the ghost seemed at a loss. "Did I? I'm not sure why I said that…"

"Oh. Well, uh, who are you, then?" Sora asked instead.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"I mean, what's your name? How come you're haunting this forest?"

"My…name?" she repeated slowly, as if confused. A frown marked her vague features.

"Yeah, you have one, don't you?"

The ghost was no longer laughing. The glow surrounding her flickered and she clutched her head as if it pained her.

"My…name?" she repeated, distressed. "I don't…I can't…" The wind picked up again, causing trees and bushes to shudder violently.

Kairi jabbed her elbow into Sora's side. "What the hell are you doing, don't make her upset!"

"I didn't realize it was a sore subject," he said with a casual shrug. "Hey, it's okay if you don't remember your name," he called to the ghost. "No big deal!"

"But I  _must_  have a name," she said. "I used to, I know I did. But I just… don't remember. I haven't thought about it in so long that I can't…" The wind died down suddenly, the burst of the girl's emotion worn out. She slumped in her seat, clutching her head, exhausted. "How could I forget something so important?" 

"Ah, perhaps I could be of some help?" Namine suggested timidly, stepping forward.

The ghost looked up and seemed to squint at her.

"I'm a mage, you see," Namine continued, growing more confident when the ghost did not lash out. "And I'm rather good with memory spells, if I do say so myself. Perhaps I could—I mean, I might be able to help you remember, if you want to."

"Woah, you could use your magic on a ghost?" Sora gaped, amazed.

"I don't see why not," Namine replied thoughtfully. "I've actually read quite a number of articles discussing the nature of ghosts and spirits, and the major theories all suggest that what we think of as a ghost is really just the energy of manifested memories."

"Huh?" Sora scrunched up his nose. "Maniwhatnow?"

"Manifested memories," Namine explained patiently. "You see, when a person dies, their memory lingers in the hearts of the people they left behind. But if a person with a particularly strong spirit dies, especially if they die in a particularly violent way, these memories might manifest into a nearly-physical entity, forming what we commonly call a ghost." She paused and considered the translucent girl before her.

"She must have become bound to a physical object," Namine continued. "This can happen with objects or places that were important to the spirit in life, and causes them to linger in the physical world when they would otherwise pass on, as people's memories of them become fainter. In time, the spirit's own memories can fade, causing the energy to become chaotic and directionless as they forget who they were in life. But because they are bound to something in the physical world, they cannot pass on."

"Huh?" Sora repeated, as confused as ever.

"Don't worry, most of that went over my head, too," said Roxas, whose face was also scrunched up.

"Ugh, forget it," sighed Riku. "Look, the point is, if ghosts are made of memories, then Namine should be able to help with her memory spells. Okay?"

"Oh, I see! That makes sense!" Sora said brightly. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"But I did…" said Namine.

"You have to use small words with Sora.  _Yunalesca et al_  is way beyond him," Riku snorted.

"You've read Yunalesca?" Namine's eyebrows raised with polite surprise, for it wasn't often she found someone to discuss magical theory with.

"Of course I have," said Riku with the smug air of a well-read man. "She's  _only_  the most prominent researcher in the field of spectral-spiritual studies. Her theories about the  _fayth_  of Zanarkand were ground breaking."

"Oh, I  _know_! I actually wrote my senior thesis about Zanarkand and its importance to the field of memory magic," said Namine, not to be outdone when it came to pompous displays of knowledge.

"You two are such nerds!" Sora laughed, shattering their intellectual competition.

The ghost was chuckling, too. "It's very strange to be analyzed so academically," she said. "I'm not sure if it makes me feel better or not."

"It should make you feel better, I hope," said Namine. "Because if you are composed of memories, that means your memories still exist, even if you have forgotten them. You almost remembered who made the traps, didn't you? I'll just have to repair the connections and strengthen your ability to recollect. Do you want me to help you? I've never done this sort of thing with a spirit, but theoretically, it should work."

The ghost gave a tentative but hopeful nod, eager to remember the important things she had forgotten.

Namine stepped forward before the ghost with the posture and grace of a ballerina's first position. Her eyes were closed and her breath deep and even in meditation. Her audience watched her eagerly. After a moment, Namine opened her eyes and raised her arms toward the spirit. Her hands began to sway and the ghostly girl moved with her, seemingly hypnotized. Slowly, she began tracing out odd patterns with her fingers as if playing an invisible piano and the golden haze surrounding the ghost shimmied and quivered like smoke. They moved like this for several tense minutes. Then, with a final flick of her delicate fingers, Namine released the ghost from whatever hold she'd had over her and stepped back, apparently finished with her spell.

The ghost snapped up abruptly in her seat and blinked. Her features began to solidify as the hazy blur eased away, and the group marveled at the young woman it revealed. Her large eyes were now a definite blue, her mouth a puckered pout, and her nose an impish nub. Her hair became dark and short, cut just above her narrow shoulders and she appeared to be wearing a featureless dress made up of the glow surrounding her.

The girl gazed at them, mirroring their surprise. Then her face broke out in an infectious grin.

"You did it!" she laughed. "I remember now!" Her voice had lost some of its unearthly quality and her laughter no longer echoed quite as eerily. She jumped off her perch on the logs and danced about the clearing, arms raised with excitement while she laughed. "I remember! I remember my name!" she cried jubilantly.

"Well, what is it?" Sora prompted.

She turned back to them, beaming. "My name is Xion," she declared.

"That's a lovely name," Kairi said with an encouraging smile.

Namine was grinning wickedly at her success. This was  _definitely_  one to brag about back home.

"Let's see, what else do I know again?" Xion pondered as she skipped and twirled. "The traps! I remember when she made them." She stopped her dancing and smiled fondly at the nets in the trees. "She made them to protect me when everyone was trying to kidnap me. She had so many tricks. She was a mage, too, but not quite like you. She used her magic to make things. She made all  _kinds_  of things, you know. She was brilliant!"

"So you remember her name?" asked Sora.

"Her name was Faris," she answered with a faraway smile. "I remember her again. I can't believe I could ever forget her!" Xion's eyes were lit with excitement. "Faris would always come visit me, the fireflies would lead her here, too. But they were much better about that kind of thing back then.  _Those_  fireflies would never have let you get split up or abandon you out of nowhere. I suspect they've gotten lazy these days. A firefly's lifespan is so short, so it's been about a bajillion generations for them since the old days. No wonder they've forgotten how it used to be."

"What do you mean?" asked Kairi, a sneaking suspicion coming over her. "How did it used to be?"

"Well it  _used_  to be that the fireflies would find anyone lost in this forest and bring them to me so I could help them! It always made me so sad to know there might be someone hurt and afraid nearby, so the fireflies agreed to help. They were my friends and they always did what I asked them to. They were very kind that way. And I think somewhere in them, the fireflies must remember doing that, instinctually, because sometimes they still lead people around the forest. But nowadays they only seem to make people lost, just like they did with you all! They've turned into regular will o' the wisps!" Xion laughed.

"But I suppose some of them managed better than others," she continued. "I mean, they found their way back to my old cabin this time, didn't they? This is where they used to take people when I was still alive. Although," she paused, looking over the decaying remains of the cabin wistfully, "It's not quite what it used to be, is it? I suppose time will do that to anything if no one's around to keep it nice. Pity."

The group stared at her with wide eyes.

"Then does that mean…that you're the Firefly Queen?" asked Kairi in awe.

Xion laughed again. "Firefly Queen? Gosh, I haven't heard that old nickname in  _ages_! Faris used to call me that, mostly to make fun of me, really, since those little buggers were always following me around. I'd forgotten about that!"

There was silence as the group gaped incredulously at the ghost of the mythical Firefly Queen, but it was broken after a moment when Sora barked a laugh.

"See? What'd I tell ya? The Firefly Queen is totally real! That means her dagger must be real too!" he cried with triumph, thrilled at his luck.

"I don't believe this," groaned Roxas, slapping a palm to his forehead. "This'll just end up encouraging your crazy ideas even more."

"My dagger?" asked Xion.

"Yeah, that's why we're here in the first place," Sora explained. "We're looking for that magic dagger you had that was connected to your heart that let you wield your light or whatever. Cuz we need to use it to defeat this evil no-eyebrows guy so he doesn't eat everyone's soul. It's been lost for a few hundred years, but I asked the fireflies and they took us here. Do you have it?"

"No eyebrows? Hm, that  _does_  sound serious. But which dagger do you…Oh." Xion paused, and her blue eyed darkened with sorrow. "You must mean  _that_  dagger." She was quiet for a long moment. Eventually, she looked up at them with a sad smile.

"It's a peculiar thing to suddenly remember all your sad memories at once." She scrubbed her eye with the palm of her hand and swallowed thickly. "I'm sorry, but I don't have it anymore."

"Do you know where it is?" Kairi asked gently.

"It's been taken."

"By whom?" asked Namine, when Xion did not elaborate.

"The crows," she sighed sadly. "And you won't get it back from them easily. They're very possessive of their treasure."

"Crows?" balked Roxas. "First fireflies, now  _crows_? Should we just go ask a zoo for help?"

"Says the  _cat_ ," snorted Riku.

Roxas narrowed his eyes at the noble, thinking that Sora had said the exact same thing to him earlier that evening.

"Can you take us to where the crows are?" asked Kairi.

"Alright. Though I don't know how much good it will do. Years ago, back before I began losing my memories, I tried to get the dagger back from them, but they refused. Crows are incredibly stubborn, you know. But I'll take you if you think it'll help. Their nest isn't far."

And so they set off in search of the crow's nest, following behind Xion like a gaggle of baby ducks. Xion was a much better guide than her firefly counterparts, both more reliable and more talkative. She chattered pleasantly about funny things she had witnessed in the forest and the unfortunate lost wanderers she had terrorized, however unintentionally.

"I do things I used to do when I was alive, but they always turn out frightening. I used to laugh all the time, but now my laughter scares people instead. And I try to help them if they're lost, but they always scream and run away when they see me and wind up more lost than ever!"

"That's probably because you're dead," said Roxas. Kairi elbowed him in the side for being so blunt, but Xion only nodded thoughtfully.

"I suppose that's true," she agreed with a soft chuckle.

Kairi eventually took pity on a shivering Riku, whose drenched clothing and hair had turned freezing in the night air, and gave him a small hand towel that she had brought in her pack. Riku received it graciously, echoing all his rarely-used training in polite etiquette to thank her as he dried his hair and wiped his face clean. Namine produced a pair of extra socks from her well-equipped pack, and he changed into them with relish, grateful to be rid of his uncomfortable wet pair. The rest of the group raised surprised eyebrows when she pulled them out, but Namine was unfazed.

"When you work as a spy for a long as I have, you quickly realize the immense benefits of bringing extra socks," she explained.

As they walked, fireflies appeared out of the darkness to gather around Xion like joyous dogs greeting an owner. She beamed as she received them, though she scolded them playfully for their poor guiding abilities. Soon a glowing cloud had formed, the fireflies that had initially led them into the forest and infinitely more, and Xion's own ghostly, golden glow made her appear as if she were one of them, the true Queen of the Fireflies.

Kairi asked about Faris, and Xion eagerly launched into story after story of how they had met, the long, lazy days spent together in their secluded forest paradise, and various adventures and mishaps the two had gotten into and out of. Perhaps because she was a spirit, a collection of memories rather than a physical body, her emotions seemed to radiate from her, and the group could feel Xion's love for Faris as if it were their own.

She did not mention their sorrowful ending with the dagger and the tower, nor did they ask her about it.

"Okay, I got a question," Roxas blurted eventually. "I mean,  _somebody's_  gotta ask it, right? The Firefly Queen myth is all about the girl with the pure heart and the mage who loved her—the  _male_  mage. The mage in the story is definitely a  _man_. But  _you_  are telling us that the mage you were in love with is a  _woman_. So, what's the deal?"

"There's a myth about us?" Xion asked, eyebrows raised. "Oh how strange!" (No one thought to mention the irony of a  _ghost_  calling something strange.) "Faris was definitely a woman, though." She blushed slightly, and gave the ground a secret smile. " _Definitely_  a woman. Though she often wore pants and suits like a man. She preferred that to dresses and skirts. Sometimes people would confuse her for a man when they first met her—There was nothing quite as funny as confusing people about which gender she was. And Faris never really cared either way."

"Well I think this is  _clearly_  a case of queer erasure," said Kairi. "The Firefly Queen myth is meant to be a patriotic story that makes Nomura out to be a city founded on principles of light and love which can overcome hate and darkness. Except that it wouldn't do for a story like that to be about a lesbian couple, even if that was the truth. So whoever decided to make the story part of the city's historical and cultural narrative tweaked that bit. Cases of queer erasure are unfortunately very common."

Kairi found the group had stopped to stare at her, wide-eyed. Even the fireflies seemed surprised by her outburst.

She cleared her throat, fighting down a blush. "As a feminist, this is a subject that I'm very passionate about," she said by way of explanation. "The heteronormative structure controlled by the patriarchy is damaging for everyone involved."

"Well said," said Riku. She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to detect traces of sarcasm, but found none. "You sure you want to be a scientist, not a sociologist?"

"I don't see why I can't pursue both interests," she shrugged, now definitely blushing.

"Well, that explains  _that_ , then," said Roxas, clapping his hands together. "I'm satisfied. Rock on, you awesome dead lesbian lovers. Fight the power."

Xion laughed, thrilled at the controversy her life had apparently inspired.

* * *

To say that the crow's nest was a bird's nest would be to claim the Jenova Mansion a house, or the sun a source of light. So enormous and complex was it that it morphed the trees in which they were roosted into an intricate jumble of absurd, stick-constructed apartments, housing hundreds of squabbling, scuffling, squawking birds. Items both nature and human-made were woven into sturdy walls tucked between tree branches, with shards of glass for windows and stray horseshoes as archways for the entrances. It was the strangest, most unbird-like nest any of them had ever seen.

The birds' raucous clamor came to an abrupt silence at the group's arrival, as hundreds of pairs of beady eyes glared down at them with suspicion. The humans could only gape like fish in response.

"Holy shit," said Roxas. "That nest is  _huge_! Is that normal?"

"Not for most crows, no," said Xion. "But the crows in this forest have always been a bit peculiar. For some reason, they've got it in their heads that they want to be like people, so they've taken to imitating them. I think it's dreadful, personally. A bird's way of doing thing is perfectly fine, there's no need for them to pretend to be human."

"So the magic dagger is hidden somewhere in there?" Sora asked.

"Yes. Crows like to collect shiny things to decorate their nest with, but these birds have taken it further in their attempt to act like people. Now the bird with the best collection is revered and given higher social status. They've got quite the plutocracy, it seems. The bird that has my dagger won't give it up because it's the biggest, prettiest object he has. He's quite respected in the community because of it."

"Excuse me!" Sora shouted up at the nest. "Hello there, crows! I need to speak with one of you! Would the bird with the magic dagger please come out! It's extremely important!"

"What, like they're just going to respond to you?" scoffed Riku.

"It worked with the fireflies. Roxas too," Sora shrugged.

"I don't count," said Roxas. He thwacked Sora's head lightly and Sora laughed.

"Really? The fireflies responded when you asked a question?" Xion asked, her transparent eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, sure. I asked them to take me to your dagger, and they took us all into the forest. Then they got lazy and stopped listening to me, but at first they were helpful."

"Is that true? Oh my, I just assumed they had found you lost in the forest like they usually do. I've never known them to respond to someone else's questions and guide people who aren't lost to begin with."

"Yeah, well, that's Sora for ya. Weird shit always happens to him," said Roxas.

"I'm lucky," Sora agreed, beaming at his fortune.

"It's really very unusual, though," Xion insisted. She squinted at Sora as if to get a better look at him and tilted her head thoughtfully at what she seemed to find. "But then again, perhaps you're—"

But whatever Xion thought Sora might be was lost in a burst of harsh cawing from the nest. The group looked up to see that several crows had come out to perch on low branches, studying the humans in interest and squawking loudly as they did so. The birds scooted along the branches until they had formed two lines like a royal guard. All that was missing were the trumpets and flags. The birds still inside the nest clamored wildly with flapping wings and harsh screeching, and some peeked out of the entryways and windows. Still others gathered in the upper branches to get a better look at them all.

Then, when the racket seemed it might rouse the whole forest from slumber, it quieted all at once. From an entryway built around an old, tarnished picture frame emerged an enormous bird, as large as a terrier, with dull feathers graying around the tips. He wore what looked like a woman's pendant earring hanging from a small chain on his breast, which he bore as proudly as if it were a king's emblem.

"That's a  _crow?_ " gaped Kairi.

"They tend to grow big in these woods. The lesser crows bring the high status birds food in order to gain favor, and since everyone's doing the work for them, they hardly need to fly anymore. They just get fatter and fatter." said Xion. 

"Hello Crow," greeted Sora cheerfully. "You're the one who has the magic dagger?"

The crow barked a rude and grumpy response and seemed to sneer at them. Sora, of course, was not offended.

"Okay, here's the thing—we need to use that dagger to save people and stuff. Can we have it?"

All the crows immediately began cawing in what was clearly hysterical laughter. The fat bird cackled as well, before turning to hop back to the nest.

"Amateur," sighed Riku, shaking his head. "There's no way you'll convince a rich man—or crow— to do anything that way. Let me show you how it's done." He stepped forward with an air of importance and an expression of extreme boredom, standing as straight as a pole with arms clasped behind his back.

Riku cleared his throat with a precise  _ahem_ , and though it was not a loud sound by any means, it managed to catch the attention of the lord bird, for he turned at the sound. The surrounding crows hushed.

"Good evening, Mister Crow," Riku said with a slight incline of his head. "My name is Riku Harvey, son of Cecil Harvey and Rosa Jenova, of the Jenova family of Nomura." He paused a moment to let the gravity of his name take hold, and it had the desired effect of inciting the lord crow's obvious interest. He hopped forward on his perch, tilting his head from side to side to better examine one of the upper class humans he was so desperate to emulate.

"It has come to our attention that you are in possession of an old dagger that once belonged to this fine ghost here, is that correct?"

The crow gave a small noise of affirmation. Riku thought the bird was probably a bit peeved that he had declared the dagger  _old_  and implied wrongful ownership of some sort. That, of course, had been the point, to make the bird slightly indignant. An indignant man—or bird—was more likely to do what you wanted, in an effort to prove you wrong.

"Really? Excellent. We were hoping we might see it. Just a quick look, of course. The ghost has been telling us tales of its beauty and we were thinking the stories were a bit hard to believe. We have a small wager between us, you see. Some of us are  _convinced_  the dagger is as brilliant as she says.  _I_ , of course, am not so certain. It would just be a  _small_  favor, but we would  _surely_  appreciate it. The wager simply  _cannot_  be settled without a real look at the thing." Riku had slipped into the bored drawl of the upper class, something he had mastered at a young age. He squinted his eyes and raised an eyebrow expectantly.

The crow thought it over for a moment before calling what seemed to be quick orders to the crows beside him, and the birds scuttled back inside the nest to retrieve the dagger. The lord bird shifted on his branch, eager to prove to the  _Jenova_  human that his dagger was indeed as beautiful as claimed. No— _more_  beautiful, even! Humans did have such amusing tendencies, and what harm could it do to humor them, especially for a noble? Perhaps these  _wagers_  could become a fun pastime for the upper class crows, as well.

The servant crows returned bearing the dagger between them, wrapped in cloth and suspended from rope clutched in their beaks. They landed on the lowest branch of the tree, so that the dagger hung just a few feet above their heads.

Riku make no obvious reaction when the dagger was brought out, though the flurry of fanfare from the crows made it clear that they meant to impress. Sora and the others took their cue from Riku and adopted his vaguely interested expression.

"Well we can't exactly get a good look at it from up there, can we?" said Riku, rolling his eyes with annoyed disdain. "Can't you come any closer?"

The crows fussed and bent their heads down as far as they could, but the rope was still too short.

"Might you just drop it down to us? We'll only look at it for a moment," he said.

The crows hesitated and looked back to their lord with question. The fat crow mulled it over for a moment, then bobbed his head in consent. The crows released their hold on the rope and dropped the dagger down to them. Riku caught it easily.

Riku grinned to himself. Social upstarts were all the same, human or not.

He paused a moment to give a significant look to his companions, who peered at the wrapped dagger eagerly. Xion's eyes were wide with longing, and her ghostly glimmer shivered. The fireflies with them fluttered and flickered excitedly.

With careful, precise movements, Riku removed the rope and cloth covering. The dagger was revealed, tarnished and covered with dust, yet the featherlike engravings were still visible on the smooth hilt, and the blue-tinted blade looked sharp as ever. It was half as long as Riku's forearm, and surprisingly light.

Xion gasped sharply at the sight of it, and tears began to well up in her eyes. No one but her fireflies noticed, however, for everyone was too absorbed with the weapon before them.

It was rather strange. They had expected…more. It was a beautiful weapon, truly, but there was nothing obviously magical about it. Merely an old, well-made knife.

"This is it, then? This is the one?" asked Kairi.

"Oh yes," said Xion breathlessly. "This is it," She reached out a hand toward it timidly, but seemed to change her mind at the last moment and pulled away as if might bite her.

"I say we run for it," said Roxas in low voice. "With trees dense as this, they'll have trouble flying after us."

But it seemed the crows had heard him, for they shifted and clacked their beaks dangerously. Their sharp claws glinted in the moonlight.

Riku began to laugh, loudly and obviously, a stage actors laugh. "Oh, ha ha what a good  _joke_. So  _funny_ , aren't you!" he called for the crows to hear. Then he added in a fierce, close whisper to Roxas "Are you  _crazy_? There's over a hundred of them, they'll scratch our eyes out!" He returned to his false laugh, and Kairi and Namine joined in nervously.

Roxas managed a forced grin up at the trees. "Well, you know me, odd sense of humor."

The birds seemed to settle a bit. They knew nothing about human comedy. Humans were much stranger than birds, after all.

"So what do we  _do_ , then?" Kairi whispered tensely through a broad smile.

"Follow my lead," said Riku. He turned to the crows, his blank, bored expression back in place. "Well it's a fine weapon, to be sure. But I don't know if it can stand up to modern standards of beauty," he sniffed.

"I  _quite_  agree," said Namine, assuming the same unimpressed air as Riku. "It's simply  _covered_  in rust. Shoddy maintenance, poor preservation indeed."

"I guess I've lost the wager," said Kairi, nervous yet thrilled to be in on the ruse. "I owe you, then."

It was all Sora could do to keep his face blank. He was no good at things like this, for he was prone to bursting out with laughter at the wrong moment.

Riku held it up to the moonlight, squinting his eyes in a flippant examination, then sighed and gave it a dismissive wave. "Not sure it's worth much more than scrap metal these days, honestly."

Though she knew it was an act, Xion still tensed at seeing her treasured dagger treated so. The crows were not particularly happy about it either, and they shuffled about and clucked to each other in hushed tones, perhaps discussing whether the lord bird should really be held in such high regard after all, if his prized possession was worth so little. The lord crow, for his part, had stiffened, his beady eyes shining unhappily.

"Alright, Mister Crow, I have a proposition for you," said Riku, as he rolled the dagger back up in the old cloth. "My ghostly friend here is rather fond of this hunk of junk, and she would very much like to have it back. Purely sentimental reasons—you know how ghosts are. And I'm  _sure_  you'd be relieved to get this thing off your hands—or, wings, rather. What do you think? Mind letting us have it?"

The lord crow clearly  _did_  mind, and began cawing fiercely, feathers puffed up in anger enough to make him look twice his size. The surrounding crows beat their wings and squawked in uproar. Some swooped through the air high above in an alarming frenzy.

Riku tensed and grit his teeth at his miscalculation. Roxas hunched in a predatory stance, prepared to take some of the birds down should they attack. Cats were  _never_  intimidated by birds.

"It'll be a trade, of course!" Kairi interjected suddenly. "We'll give you something in return!"

The crows were mollified for a moment, willing to hear out the proposal.

"We're going to  _what_?" Riku hissed at her.

"We're going to  _trade_ ," she insisted. Her smile was beginning to look more like a grimace. "We obviously can't just  _take_  something of theirs without giving them something in exchange. Otherwise it would be  _stealing_."

"Ah," was all Riku had to say to that.

"Nobles! Honestly!" Kairi huffed, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Alright, everyone look for something we can give them."

They all shuffled through the things they had brought. Xion had nothing, of course. Roxas had nothing, either, for he never carried anything as a cat. Sora had the keys to his apartment and bike lock, some pocket lint, and a packet of gum. Besides her lantern and extra socks, Namine had brought an apple, a roll of twine, matches, a notebook, and a pencil. Kairi's bag contained a pair of scissors, some of her cleaning spray, the towel she had lent to Riku, and some bandages. Riku had only his knife, a water canteen, and a pocket watch.

The obvious choices were between Riku's knife and pocket watch. Which, unfortunately, he was quite unwilling to give up.

"What about Miss Kairi's scissors? They're shiny enough. We'll just tell them they're extremely valuable." But the scissors were well-used and slightly tarnished and didn't look worth much of anything.

"Come on, Riku, what's it gonna be? The knife or the watch? The fate of the world depends on it," said Sora.

"It does  _not_ , stop saying that." Riku sighed, looking between his two possessions regretfully. The knife had once belonged to his father, and though it was not worth much, it was still beautiful from constant, meticulous care. The watch had been a gift from his uncle for his birthday last year, the customary gift when one turned sixteen. It was much more valuable than the rusted dagger, and engraved dragons gleamed smartly on both sides of the silver case. He flicked it open to look at its face, then closed it again with an annoyed sigh. It was an easy choice, really.

He turned to back to the expectant crows. "In exchange for this decrepit old dagger, I offer you instead this priceless silver pocket watch, engraved with a dragon, the emblem of the Jenova family," he declared through gritted teeth. He held the watch up for the crows to see, and they all shifted to get a better view of it. "It is sturdy and shiny and set to the exact time, not a second off. This is a one-time opportunity. I suggest you take it."

The lord crow looked down at him imperiously, then gave a sharp, affirmative caw. His servants dutifully swooped down and snatched the watch from his outstretched hand.

And with that, the bargain was done. The pocket watch for the dagger, both sides feeling as if they'd gotten the better deal. The crows were in an uproar of excitement, as loud as a storm, their beating wings tumultuous thunderclaps, their screeches cracks of lightning.

"My uncle is going to  _kill_  me when he finds out what happened to that watch," Riku groaned.

"So don't tell him, then," snorted Sora.

"He'll find out somehow. He  _always_  finds out." Riku shook his head in resignation.

They left the crows' racket behind them, eager to be off in case the crows decided to change their mind and come clawing out their eyes.

"Well, let's see it, then," said Sora once they had put enough distance between them and the birds.

Riku pulled it out and uncovered it, and they all peered down at their prize.

"It's here, it's really here," said Xion. "I can't believe you got it back. I don't know how I can ever repay you. Thank you  _so_  much!" She reached out once again, but was still hesitant to touch it.

"Will you let us take it? We need it to fight Xehanort, you know," said Roxas.

"The man with no eyebrows, I remember." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she was smiling. "Yes, you have my blessing. I would much rather people like you have it and use it for good than let it sit on display in that dreadful nest. It's meant to protect, and that's how it should be used."

"Thank you," said Sora, with a kind smile.

"I can polish it up a bit," said Kairi. She took out her polish spray and hand towel. A few quick spritzes and some careful scrubbing cleaned away the dirt and most of the tarnish, and it gleamed brilliantly in her hands, as good a new.

"I wanna hold it!" said Sora, as giddy as a child with a new toy. Kairi warned him to be careful before she handed it over.

Once in his hands, however, it began to glow, a faint, golden light that exactly matched the one surrounding Xion. Kairi made a noise of surprise, and everyone's eyes widened. The fireflies around them whizzed about in a flurry. Sora looked down at the dagger with bewilderment. It certainly looked more like a magic dagger now.

"What's happening?" asked Roxas, alarmed. "Why does it glow when he holds it?"

Xion smiled and stepped toward Sora, her ghostly feet soundless on the grass. She reached a hand out to touch his cheek.

"I thought so," she said. "The fireflies don't respond like that to just  _anyone_. And now my dagger is greeting you, too. You're like me, aren't you? Pure of heart."

Sora looked up, surprised. "Am I?"

"Definitely. I can feel it, your warm light. So does the dagger. Sometimes people are just born pure of heart, an anomaly of goodness. You can't help it, and you can't change it. It's who you are."

Sora frowned, confused, but she only smiled back, chuckling at his expression.

"That dagger has a name, you know. I called it  _Oathkeeper_  when it was first given to me, all those years ago," said Xion.

" _Oathkeeper_ ," he repeated, testing the name on his tongue. It fit well, he thought.

"I'm glad I met you all," said Xion, looking back at everyone. "Especially you, Sora. It wouldn't feel right leaving  _Oathkeeper_ with anyone less worthy."

"Who says I'm worthy?" he asked quietly.

"The blade does. The glow means she's calling you.  _Oathkeeper_  has chosen you for your pure heart."

For the first time in quite a while, Sora was absolutely speechless.

"I think it's time for me to go," said Xion, with a tone of deep emotion. "I've been bound to this earth far longer than I wanted to be. And now that a worthy wielder has claimed my  _Oathkeeper_ , I think it's time I moved on."

Once again, Xion reached her hand toward her dagger, and finally placed her palm over the engraved hilt, allowing herself to touch it at last. And then, before their eyes, she began to disintegrate, fading away like glitter dissolving in water.

Roxas cried out at the suddenness of it, and Kairi gasped in horror. Riku and Namine were equally silent but wide-eyed. Sora met her lingering gaze, saw both the infinite sadness and the limitless joy in her being, set free at last now that the dagger had been reclaimed.

"Thank you," she said, her voice echoing like a choir of bells, resonating deeply within her forest. And with that, Xion was gone, reunited with Faris at last.

The fireflies swirled around them like tiny fireworks, wild with the light overwhelming their senses.

"Fireflies, could you please take us home now?" Sora asked, suddenly weary.

And, eager to please and elated by the rush of light that had just passed, they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Faris is a character from Final Fantasy V, a cross-dressing pirate who I think is pretty awesome. Riku's parents, Cecil Harvey and Rosa are from Final Fantasy IV, and with their story lines, they might as well be his parents, with all the fighting darkness in their hearts and whatnot.


	11. The Sting of the Bee

The next morning was a long and laborious one for Sora, full of dull office duties and strenuous delivery rides, made more difficult as Sora did not operate well on so little sleep. Every wide yawn received a pointed look from an unimpressed Cloud, who did not approve of slacking. Bleary-eyed and drooping, Sora soldiered on with the somber resolve only a paycheck can bring.

Cloud eventually took pity on his tired employee and set him free a little after lunch, mostly because Sora’s yawns had become contagious, and he wanted to be rid of the source of the epidemic. But instead of taking a much-needed nap, Sora grabbed a bag and his bike and pedaled north.

When he and Roxas slipped through the discrete hole in the Jenova mansion gate, they found Namine and Selphie trimming bushes nearby. Selphie let out a startled yip and nearly dropped her pruning shears at their abrupt appearance, but Namine’s practiced impassive expression betrayed no surprise.

“Sora! What the heck are you doing crawling out of bushes like a weirdo? You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Selphie wailed with appropriate drama.

“Oh, sorry. The old gate guy is mean, though, so how else would I get in?” Which was a reasonable enough explanation for Selphie to accept.

“Riku’s still in his lessons,” said Namine, anticipating his needs smoothly. “He should be out in about an hour or so.” Sora made a noise of disappointment. Riku had too many lessons in his opinion.

“So since you’re here and the Ice Prince is busy, wanna eavesdrop with us?” Selphie’s grin turned mischievous. 

“Yeah, alright,” Sora agreed with a genial shrug. “Who are we eavesdropping on today?”

“Kairi and Hayner, of _course_. It’s one of my favorite pastimes, next to ogling all the delicious army officers,” Selphie replied, eyebrows waggling.

“Delicious? How do they taste?” Sora’s eyes widened as he imagined Selphie’s casual feasting of flesh.

“Mm, mostly hot and spicy,” she answered, tapping a thoughtful finger to her chin. “But sometimes juicy and savory.”

“Like chicken?”

“More like beef.”

“Oh, I see,” Sora nodded warily.

Roxas gave a very human-sounding snort, but he managed to turn it into a convincing _meow_ when everyone looked at him. Then it was Namine’s turn to snort, and Roxas shrunk with embarrassment.

“Anyway,” Selphie continued with a voice lowered for conspiracy, “stay quiet, they’re just over there.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, and when Sora’s gaze followed its direction he spied their targets by the stables not too far away. Kairi had a harried expression and a broom in her hands, which she thrust forcefully at the pavement walkway, while Hayner lounged lazily on a wheelbarrow next to her. The bushes acted as a slight cover for Sora, Selphie and Namine, but it was possible they would have gone unnoticed even without it, for the two of them were so completely engrossed in their conversation. 

“Aw, c’mon, don’t be like that,” Hayner was saying with a smug sort of country drawl. “I was jus’ playin’. It’s not like you got in trouble or nuthin’.”

Kairi gave a stifled cry of frustration and whirled around to face him, fire in her eyes and blush on her cheeks. “Humiliating me in public—or _any_ setting, actually—is not _nuthin’_ ,” she snarled with a lion’s ferocity. “And the next time you decide to be a child and throw _banana peels_ of all things in front of me, I will punch that stupid grin off your ugly face. You’re lucky I didn’t twist my ankle!”

But Kairi’s diatribe was drowned out when Hayner burst into uproarious laughter. Kairi’s lips thinned and her eyebrows rose dangerously, one hand clenched into a tight grip on the broom handle, the other into a hard fist. But Hayner’s hysterics only grew and he doubled forward on the wheelbarrow, clutching at his stomach over the hilarity of his simple prank.

“I can’t believe ya actually fell for it, though!” he howled. “How din't ya  _see_ it there? But then, _whoop_! _Splat_!” He mimed Kairi’s apparently spectacular fall with waving arms. “Classic!”

“Oh, sure, laugh it up now while you can,” Kairi said icily. “We’ll see how charming you can be when I knock out your front teeth.”

Hayner’s laughter cut off abruptly and he looked up at her with surprise. Kairi had a millisecond of perceived victory before Hayner asked “So you think I’m charming?” which had her seething once more.

Hayner grinned. And unfortunately, it was still quite charming.

“Ugh, I give up,” Kairi huffed and turned back to her vicious attack on the pavement dirt with her broom. “Just leave me alone, will you? Go muck up horse shit, or whatever it is you’re paid to do around here.”

“Aw, but I was enjoying our banter!” said Hayner, sitting forward with his elbows on his knees. Rather than leaving, he seemed to be making himself more comfortable.

“It’s not banter, it’s harassment,” Kairi snapped. “You’re such a typical pig-headed, self-involved _man_. You think it’s your right to just invade women’s personal space and ignore them when they tell you to leave them alone. Well it’s _not_! So you can just unlearn that patriarchy-directed societal conditioning _right now_.”

“Alright, alright,” he relented, holding his palms up in surrender. “I didn’t mean to disrespect your autonomy or whatnot.” Kairi eyed him slyly at that. “Next time I decide to illustrate the simple joys of slap-stick comedy, I’ll use Pence as the test subject.”

Kairi gave a lofty ‘hmph’.

“So tell me about science stuff then,” Hayner tried. He seemed to be fighting the urge to laugh over his prank again, with his lips pinched together to hold it in.

Kairi leveled him with a solidly unimpressed expression.

“That’s what you’re into, right?” Hayner continued, managing sincere sobriety at last. “Science stuff? It’s not harassing, it’s expressing an interest in your hobbies, ain’t it? So maybe you can answer some questions I got. See I got _a lot_ of questions. For instance, why do men have nipples? We ain’t breastfeedin’ no babies. And what is fire? Don’t things gotta be solid liquid or gas? But fire ain’t none of those. So what the hell? What _is_ it, then?” He had worked himself up into an earnest confusion.

Kairi rolled her eyes with as much exaggeration as she could manage. “Men have nipples because all embryos start out more or less as females and the male hormones kick in after nipples have already formed.” Hayner let out a shocked ‘ _what!_ ’ which she ignored. “And fire isn’t solid, liquid, _or_ gas because it’s a chemical _reaction_. Fire itself is not matter, it’s the _process_ of _converting_ matter into a different form when the right gasses are combined with the right amount of heat and fuel. _Duh_. That’s, like, basic science. Didn’t you ever pay attention in school?” she scoffed.

“Well maybe I would’a done if I’d had a teacher as cute as you,” he replied smoothly. He had acquired a strand of straw from somewhere and was now chewing it idly.

“Oh, and now I see we’re on to objectify me. That’s really great, Hayner. Wonderful. Because a woman is only worth listening to if she’s nice to look at, huh?” She paused to pantomime sniffing the air. “Hm, what’s that _awful_ smell?” she asked. “Smells like…misogyny.”

“Might just be the horse shit,” Hayner offered. They were next to the stables, after all.

“They certainly smell very similar, don’t they?” she sneered.

“But I ain’t even objectifying!” he argued. “Can’t I just marvel at the complex and multi-faceted splendor inherent in the blending of intellect and beauty?”

That brought Kairi up short, and she gave him a bemused look. “Those were some might big words for a country feller,” she said, imitating his drawl. “You been reading a dictionary lately?”

“Pence got me one,” he said, preening proudly, twirling his straw piece. “Now when you insult me with them big ol’ words, I’m gonna know what they mean.”

“I’m so happy for you,” was her dry response. She returned to her sweeping, but it now seemed a somewhat less violent activity.

“Oh my gosh, they are _too cute_ ,” squealed Selphie from Sora’s shoulder, where she had draped herself casually. “They’re like a mouthful of tart candies. I can hardly _stand_ it!” She sighed dreamily and leaned even more on her human post, and Sora staggered slightly under her weight. Roxas, who occupied Sora’s other shoulder, shifted irritably and considered jumping down.

As Selphie had completely abandoned her pruning task in favor of spying on her friends, the brunt of the job had fallen to Namine, who was struggling to pick up the slack. The shears were surprisingly heavy and the bush branches absurdly thick, and Namine’s slim fingers were not used to physical tasks. She huffed and growled at the obstinate plants, and decided that they were much worse than the irritating dirt sprites.

“Need help?” Sora asked her. He had lost interest in spying on Kairi and Hayner. Their conversation wasn’t about anything interesting, anyway.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Namine panted, a shrill, strained tone escaping without her approval. She wiped a bead of sweat from her flushed forehead.

“Hm? Oh, whoops! Here, let me,” said Selphie, remembering the untrimmed bushes at last. She released Sora of her weight and twirled her shears with ease. With a few quick, precise snips, the unwanted branches were cleared away, as simply as if she had breathed on a dandelion’s feathery seeds.

Namine tried not to glare at her partner for making it look so easy, but wasn’t entirely successful at containing her resentment. She noticed Roxas smirking at her from Sora’s shoulder, and it was her turn to blush with embarrassment.

“Hey Kairi!” Sora called, waving an arm. He figured their spying was over and was eager to get to the business he had come for.

“Eh! Sora no! Don’t interrupt them!” Selphie hissed at him.

But it was too late. Kairi looked over and her face lit up with delight at the sight of Sora and Roxas. She called a greeting and waved happily before trotting toward them. Behind her, Hayner’s pleasant smile darkened into a sullen scowl directed at the new arrivals. He stood and made his way over, hands shoved into his pockets and strand of wheat ground firmly between his teeth.

“I’m so glad you two are here,” Kairi said once she was close enough. She gave Roxas a knowing smile which had him shifting uncomfortably. “I realized I actually don’t know how to find you if you don’t come here first.”

“I’m an initiator,” Sora agreed with a serious nod.

“You know, Kairi,” interrupted Selphie, a sly expression twisting her features. “I noticed something interesting last night.”

“Did you, now?” Kairi frowned.

“I did indeed. I noticed, as your thoughtful, concerned roommate, that you were out rather late last night. _Very_ late. And you’ve been avoiding me all morning.”

“What? I haven’t been avoiding you! We’ve been working in completely different parts of the manor until now.”

“So you admit you were out late!” Selphie cried.

“It wasn’t _that_ late,” scoffed Kairi. “You were just asleep by the time I got back. And I was nice enough not to wake you.”

“Well what were you _doing_ all night, then?” A quirk of her eyebrows implied all of the outrageous nighttime activities that Kairi could be accused of.

“Yeah, what _were_ you doing?” Hayner asked, face full of equal suspicion.

“She was with me!” Sora answered brightly.

Which had both Hayner and Selphie sputtering in surprise. Though they both had been implying scandalous affairs, they had not expected Sora to confirm it. And Kairi, quite against her will, blushed, which only cemented the indecent suspicions in their minds. Selphie and Hayner gaped between her and Sora, one with a gossiper’s greedy delight, the other with horror.

“It—it’s not like that!” Kairi stammered. “Namine was there, too!”

“Namine!” Selphie gasped, overwhelmed by this revelation of events more lewd than initially imagined. Hayner was blushing now, too, despite his dismay.

“You shouldn’t be so shocked that I was there,” Namine replied with a perfectly straight face. “Anyway, the real surprise of the night was the cat.”

“The cat!” Selphie could hardly take it. A raunchy night of two girls, one boy, and a _cat_! It was just too outrageous a scandal for a single gossiper to handle at once.

Kairi glared at Namine for fueling the misunderstanding further, but Namine only smiled sweetly in return. Roxas’ eyes were wide at the sudden attention, but he was trying not to laugh.

“And Riku, too! Oh, and the ghost! _And_ the crows! _And_ the fireflies!” Sora added, helpfully. He’d had quite a bit of fun last night and didn’t mind telling everyone about it.

“A ghost!” Selphie cried faintly. She was losing oxygen. She didn’t quite understand what was being said anymore.

The last addition brought Hayner up short. “You—wait, _what_?” He frowned as if presented with a math problem.

“I told you it wasn’t like that! Get your minds out of the gutter!” said Kairi. She was still blushing, however, quite inexplicably. “We were on a very important mission to find a mythical, magical object!”

“Yeah!” Sora smiled. “We were presented with many _strange_ and _fantastical_ obstacles, but in the end, we prevailed through the power of teamwork! And I like to think that we all learned a little bit more about each other _and_ ourselves in the process. Just like a proper adventure!” He nodded in satisfaction.

Selphie seemed to join them again at last. “So, no wild orgies?”

“No! There were no wild orgies!” Kairi snapped.

Selphie slumped in disappointment. Hayner, however, seemed marginally reassured, even if he wasn’t entirely clear on what had actually happened.

“Anyway, speaking of our quest, we’ve got lots of planning to do,” said Sora. “But we should wait for Riku to finish his lessons, I think. He’s got a pretty crucial role, after all.”

Kairi and Namine agreed, and it was resolved that they would start in on their next phase of planning once Riku finished his lessons. Kairi couldn’t wait around with them, though, because she had too many chores to do. She had been slacking lately, and the head housekeeper had apparently noticed. Namine, of course, had no such worries, since she could simply manipulate someone’s memory to think she had done the things she was supposed to—though of course she didn’t explain this outright, as Selphie and Hayner were listening to their conversation with confusion. Kairi promised try to hurry so that she was finished by the time Riku was free, and then she dashed off for her laundry duties.

“I hate to see her go, but damn do I love to watch her leave,” said Hayner wistfully as Kairi hurried back to the mansion.

Selphie made a face at him. “You know, I _try_ to support you, I _really_ do. But then you go and say crude things like that and I wonder what the point is.”

Hayner shrugged with a quirk of a smile. “I never said I was Prince Charming. Besides, I don’t need your help. She’s startin’ to come around, I think.”

Selphie gave an undignified snorted at that. “Yeah right.”

“Or maybe _you’re_ the one who’s starting to come around,” said Namine, thoughtful and enigmatic now that she wasn’t trimming impossible bushes.

“Excuse me? I don’t change for _nobody_ ,” Hayner retorted. He wasn’t sure he had ever really spoken to Namine before, and he didn’t like her knowing tone.

“You bought a dictionary, didn’t you?” she asked around a polite smile.

He blushed slightly and said nothing, his hands shoved into his pockets and his shoulders hunched up to his reddening ears.

“Oh _I_ get it!” exclaimed Sora in a popcorn’s burst. “You like her, huh? But not just _like_ her—you _like_ _her_ like her!”

“Way to go, Sora. A little late to the party, though,” said Selphie.

“Hey, this is only the second time I’ve even _met_ Hayner. How was I supposed to know?” he defended. He turned to Hayner, who was now glaring at him. “She says she doesn’t like you very much, though,” Sora informed him. “She thinks you’re mean, and she gets mad whenever she talks about you.”

Hayner’s expression wavered between embarrassed, surly, and interested. “She talks about me?”

“Yeah. Kinda a lot, now that I think about it.”

“ _Tch_ , like I care,” he scoffed. But it was obvious to even Sora that Hayner was pleased by the news.

“Ugh I can’t _stand_ you two!” Selphie shook her head the disappointed way a schoolteacher might when presented with an obstinate student. “You’re both letting your pride stand in the way of your feelings! It’s driving me nuts and I can hardly focus on anything else.”

“Whatever, I never said I was in _love_ or nuthin.” Hayner rolled his eyes. “It’s just fun to rile her up. She’s cute when she gets all mad or when she’s yellin’ at me about feminism ‘n shit. But this ain’t some fancy romance or whatnot. If you wanna be all weird about it, that’s on you.”

“I’ve got it!” Selphie exclaimed, pounding a fist into her palm with a sudden idea. “What you two need is a way to test if you are both _truly_ in love with each other! If you’re not, then I’m giving up on this drama and you’re on your own. But if you _are_ , then we’ll know it’s worth the trouble! And I’ve got _just_ the thing—A guaranteed test to know what your true feelings are!”

“Really? What is it?” Sora’s face was alight with interest.

Hayner made a show of how ridiculous he considered such a test to be, but he leaned in just the same when Selphie began her explanation.

“I learned this from an old witch woman I met when I was a little girl. She told me that you must catch a wild bee and hold it in your hands. If it does not sting you, then you will know your love is true.”

“Really? Have you ever tried it?” asked Sora.

“Yes,” Selphie admitted wistfully. “But I was stung every time. Except one time the bee turned out to be a hornet, so it didn’t count—and I guess I’ll never know if I was really in love with that baker boy.”

Hayner let out a gust of a sigh. “That’s the stupidest test I ever heard. Only _you_ would be dumb enough to get yourself stung by a swarm o’ bees cuz some crazy hobo told ya.”

“It does seem a rather insubstantial theory,” said Namine. “How could a bee sting correlate to your feelings?”

Selphie shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe the bees can just sense that kind of thing. Perhaps the palm of a lover is as sweet and fragrant as a flower, so they don’t feel threatened.” She was a sucker for poetry like that, and her eyes filled with fond dreams for a moment.

“Like the way fireflies can sense inner light,” suggested Sora thoughtfully. With that reasoning, Namine accepted Selphie’s test with a noncommittal hum.

“Well I ain’t shovin’ my hand in no bee hive,” scoffed Hayner. “I gotta work with these hands, ya know. Can’t afford to get ‘em all stung up.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t get stung, though,” said Sora.

Hayner reddened once more and mumbled something which might have sounded like ‘that would be even worse’ but only Roxas heard him.

“Hayner! Quit yer lollygaggin’ n get back to work!” came a sharp, sudden shout from a burly man who had appeared from inside the stables. “These horses ain’t gonna brush themselves, are they? Course not! They ain’t got no thumbs!”

Hayner shrunk guiltily under his supervisor’s stern glare, and slunk away from their huddle. When the supervisor had returned inside, however, Hayner looked back and gave them a cocky grin.

“See you losers later,” he called with a mock salute as he jogged off back to work.

“What a dork,” sighed Selphie, shaking her head. Then she turned to Sora and Namine with a sudden knife-like glint in her eye. “So tell me, what’s this great quest you were all talking about earlier? It sounded to me like the absolutely _edible_ Master Riku is involved. I want details.”

      

* * *

  

“Well, Master Riku, I suppose we can call our lesson finished for today.”

The words were a starting gun, and Riku—who had spent the morning in a sluggish slouch—was suddenly moving with an explosion of energy to pack up his papers and books.

“Perhaps next time you might try a bit harder to pay attention,” Mr. Eraqus added. A knowing smile turned the corners of his dark moustache and softened his grizzled face. “Or at least pretend not be so excited about leaving. It’s quite hard on my self esteem, you know.”

Riku scowled and rolled his eyes.

“Though I suppose when one is young, certain things may seem far more important than trigonometry and geography,” he continued, now absently stroking the perfect black triangle of  goatee on his chin. “Friends, for example.”

Riku resolutely ignored his teacher’s rambling and snapped his math textbook shut.

“I’ve heard you have been spending quite a lot of time lately with a certain young man who keeps managing to find his way inside the manor.” Mr. Eraqus’s eyes twinkled kindly beneath incompatibly severe brows. “The gateman is apparently quite distressed over it.”

“I didn’t know you were such a gossiper,” Riku muttered.

“It’s hardly gossip, Master Riku. Making a friend is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I think it’s wonderful that you’ve found someone to open up to. It’s not good to shut yourself off from everyone the way you do. The fact that you’ve allowed yourself to become friends with someone shows growth and maturity on your part. I’m proud of you.”

“What are you, a psychologist, now?”

“No, I’m your tutor,” said Mr. Eraqus, displaying for the umpteenth time that morning his endless patience which sometimes bordered on patronizing. “And I’ve been charged with making sure that your educational and moral development steer you to become a respectable gentleman who is able to not only function, but thrive in society. As such, I would very much like you to learn healthy and productive ways of interacting with those around you.”

Riku had heard variations of this speech many times before while being scolded for his anti-social behavior, and so was unmoved by the sentiment.

“So this is all just selfish desire on your part, then. Who would hire you if they knew you had been responsible for such a blot on society as I am?”

“Now, Riku, you know that’s not true,” Mr. Eraqus reproached gently. He was still smiling is irritating smile, with his hands folded over his broad desk and his head inclined in a benevolent gesture. 

“I guess not. You were responsible for my cousins, after all, and no one seems to hold that against you,” said Riku, aiming for insolent. His things were packed now and he was heading for the door, eager to be free of his tutor’s condescending advice.

“Yes, well, those three _are_ good boys, but only when they think no one is looking,” Mr. Eraqus sighed. It was a bit of a sore spot for him. “And they were all quick and eager students, at least.”

“Even Loz?” Riku snorted.

“Loz has his good merits, as does everyone. His strengths may not lie in his wit, but he has a good heart.”

Riku only scoffed. “It must be difficult forcing yourself to only see the positive in people.”

“Not any more difficult than focusing on the negative, I would imagine.” His deep brown eyes were steady and piercing, and his gaze froze Riku in his spot by the door in a battle of eye contact. To his shame, Riku looked away first.

“Yeah, well, I have a friend now. So I guess you win,” he muttered, scowling at the floor and gripping the doorknob.

“It’s not a contest or a fight. I want you to understand that. I only want you to be happy.” The worst thing about Mr. Eraqus, in Riku’s opinion, was that he was absolutely earnest when he said things like that. “Does he make you happy, your friend?”

There was a silence like a long gulp of water, and Riku made a very different expression at the floor.

“Yeah, he does.”

And then, to save himself from further embarrassment, Riku opened the door and slipped out of the room in one swift motion. He dashed down the hallway, but tried not to look so obviously like he was fleeing.

As if sensing both his vulnerability and his desire to get somewhere else, Riku’s three cousins chose that moment to round a corner and step into his path. Riku stopped short and braced himself as he would against a winter wind.

“Dear cousin,” Kadaj cooed. “We’ve found you at last! We missed you at breakfast, you know. You seldom make an appearance at lunch, but usually at breakfast we are able to bask in your gracious presence. We were beginning to worry.”

Kadaj was the oldest, yet shortest of the three, and he acted as ring leader for the brothers’ ill deeds as he was the most clever and wicked. His thin, silver hair just brushed his shoulders and framed his somewhat delicate features and blazing green eyes.

Yazoo was the second son, willowy with a long face and heavy-lidded eyes. He had a permanent and unwavering expression of utmost boredom and disdain. He did not talk often, preferring instead to sigh in a superior, irritated manner in response to any words directed at him, though the truth was that he rarely had anything interesting to say.

Like most youngest siblings, nature had made Loz the tallest. His height was matched by a broad, muscular build, and his heavy brow and sharp cheek bones were usually softened by a vacant expression. 

“What do you want,” grumbled Riku. He had neither the time nor patience to deal with these three.

“Why _cousin_!” Kadaj gasped with a performance of offense, hand over his heart. “Must we always   _want_ something from you when we speak? Can’t we simply _enjoy_ the _company_ of our _darling_ baby cousin?”

“No,” was Riku’s flat response.

Kadaj chuckled and stepped close enough to grab Riku’s chin in his hand. “You’re so _funny_! When on _earth_ did you get so _funny_?” he asked, squishing Riku’s cheeks like a child. Riku jerked away with a glare.

“Cut it out, I’m busy.”

“Busy busy _busy_ , you’re always so busy!” sighed Kadaj. “You never want to play with us. We’re hurt!”

“I have things to do,” Riku sneered. 

“What _things_? I thought the point of being rich was that we never had things to do. The mark of a true aristocrat is never lifting a finger.”

“He’s studying for his entrance exams, I thought,” said Loz, in that blessedly thick way that he had.

“Excellent memory. That is exactly what I’m doing,” Riku agreed with cordial nod to Loz. “Being a mage isn’t easy, but someone has to do it since none of you qualify. Now if you’ll excuse me.” He stepped to the side and tried to squeeze his way past, but the three blocked his path once more.

“Oh yes, your fancy little magic spells. I guess you _would_ want to practice frequently so you don’t end up like your _poor_ father. _His_ magic didn’t do him much good in the end, did it?” Kadaj’s grin was catlike and toothy.

Riku’s lips thinned and the grip on his books was tight enough to turn his knuckles white. But he knew better than to let Kadaj think he’d gotten to him, so he rolled his eyes.

“Good one,” was his dry reply. “I get it, my parents are dead, la dee da. That one’s getting old already. You’re slipping.”

Kadaj’s act of offense was back, and he scoffed with overdone dismay. “You hear that, Yazoo? Riku thinks I’m slipping. What ever shall I do?” Yazoo only shrugged with disinterest and examined his nails, but Kadaj hadn’t expected a response. “You _wound_ me, Riku, you really do. How can you be so cruel to your cousin who has done so much for you over the years?”

“Whatever.” Riku considered walking back the way he’d come in order get away from them. It would take him far out of his way, but he could manage. Kadaj would consider Riku’s retreat a victory, though. Or worse, they would follow him. Riku grit his teeth in annoyance.

Then he spotted Kairi walking past carrying a basket of laundry behind his cousins’ backs. When she spotted Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, her eyes widened in alarm and she immediately changed course before they noticed her. But she caught Riku’s eye and offered him a sympathetic expression.

Riku decided to try his luck and take what advantage he could from her sudden appearance.

“Ah, Miss!” he called out. “Are you doing the laundry there?” Kairi froze with obvious distress, saucers for eyes and mouth open in protest at his drawing attention to her. “Excellent, I have I shirt I spilled something on earlier, and I need it washed straight away. Could you come with me? I’ll show you where I put it.” Riku brushed past his cousins’ blockade, for they had turned in momentary surprise to see who he was addressing, allowing enough room for him to slip through. He walked in long, brisk strides past Kairi and around the corner she had come from, and Kairi was quick to follow.

“Cavorting with maids, are we?” Kadaj called after them. “That’s a bit low, even for you. And anyway, if you _had_ to pick a maid, why not go for a prettier one—or at least one less _pre-pubescent_?” He was floundering, though, obviously irritated at having let Riku get by through such a simple trick. Kadaj prided himself on the subtlety and obliqueness of his insults, but they became more direct the more desperate he was.

After a few sharp turns down several short hallways with hurried steps, Riku was sure his cousins hadn’t followed. He slowed and gave Kairi an apologetic smile.

“Thanks for that.”

Kairi shrugged. “No problem. At least we _both_ got away.”

“What, you thought I’d hand you over as a distraction while I made my escape? No, I couldn’t do that to a fellow sentient being.” That clearly _was_ what Kairi had expected, though, and she hugged her laundry basket close to her chest.

“Fellow sentient being?” she asked, amused.

“No conscious creature should have to suffer them,” Riku explained. “I would only sacrifice an inanimate object in order to get away.”

“How noble of you,” she chuckled. “Anyway, Sora’s already here, if you’re free now. Last I saw him, he was with Namine and Roxas outside. I just have to drop these towels off at the laundry room and we can get to work.”

Kairi had assumed that he would go off to see Sora on his own, as nobles simply didn’t _do_ chores, even by association. But to her surprise, Riku followed her on her delivery of the towels. She sent him confused glances as they made their way to the laundry room, which he seemed to ignore, and once they arrived, he waited patiently outside the door while Kairi finished her business. They walked to the yard in silence, with Riku a customary step and a half ahead of her.

They found Sora easily, drawn by the general commotion that always seemed to surround him. He appeared to be demonstrating to Selphie and Namine techniques for accomplishing a handstand on the lawn, kicking his large feet in the air and shifting his hands below him to maintain his balance. His legs began to lean dangerously, and in a moment, Sora came crashing to the ground with an ‘oof’, though he emerged laughing. Selphie clapped her hands with delight over the show, while Namine wondered how she had been roped into such a ridiculous waste of time. Sora gave a shout when he spotted Riku and Kairi. Namine turned with relief, and Selphie ogled Riku shamelessly.

“Hey everyone!” said Kairi. “Where’s Roxas?”

“Chasing birds,” Sora answered, nodding to his left. Sure enough, they saw a blob of yellow fur pouncing to and fro at the dull brown doves bobbing about the lawn. The birds dodged his clutches easily, but squeaked in indignation all the same as they landed in different spots on the ground. They didn’t fly off into the trees, however, which was either a sign of the low level of threat they considered Roxas to be, or their stupidity. Considering Roxas’ success rate, odds were on the former.

“Ooh, are you all going to make your plans for how to stop that old baldy hunchback now?” asked Selphie. “I mean, you have the dagger and everything, but you can’t just go up and _stab_ him. That’s just…murder. I’m pretty sure you’d get in a lot of trouble for that, you know? So what’ll you do instead? It’s quite a conundrum!”

“You told Selphie?” Kairi held her head in her hands in dismay. “Why, Sora, _why_ would you do such a thing?”

Sora wasn’t the least bit upset over his crime. “I don’t see why not. The more people who know, the better. We can unite!”

“The more people who know, the more likely it is that Xehanort will figure out _we_ know and try to stop us!” said Riku, frowning. “Our best asset right now is the fact that he’s unaware that we know what he’s up to.”

“That’s what _I_ said,” agreed Namine. “But he went ahead and spilled the beans anyway.”

“Oh, don’t get your knickers all up in a bundle,” said Selphie. “I’ll keep my lips sealed, promise!”

Kairi and Riku looked doubtful, but there was nothing they could do about it now. So they resigned themselves to the fact that the biggest gossip in the manor now knew about their plot.

They moved to a spot in the garden where stone benches sat beneath the cover of trees and tried to figure out what their next step should be. Selphie followed and listened in on the conversation with the giddy excitement of a child during story-telling, but no one could exactly stop her.

Namine’s lead about the dagger of light had proved fruitful, though no one was sure what to do with the thing now that they had it. Try as she might, and much to her frustration, Namine could remember nothing more of what the wizard Yen Sid had said about how to defeat shadow magic, for those days back in Mysidia had been quite some time ago. And Selphie was right—they couldn’t just stab Xehanort. Even though it seemed the most direct way to halt his dark scheme, it was unlikely that any of them would be successful in assassinating a high-ranking official, especially with such a close-range weapon. And in any case, a _magic_ dagger hardly seemed necessary for such a task, and Namine was certain above all things that magic was the critical element in Yen Sid’s original explanation.

Sora had brought the dagger _Oathkeeper_ with him, tucked away in his messenger bag wrapped in cloth, and he brought it out for everyone to examine in case it had any clues about how to use it. It didn’t, though they spent several minutes inspecting the feather engravings on the silver hilt for hidden meaning. It was no longer glowing, either, apparently satisfied with its display after Sora’s initial handling of it.

In the end, it was decided that some sort of investigation was necessary. Namine was in favor of the library, for her last bout of research had resulted in several promising books that she wanted to look through again. Kairi wanted to search for clues the way she had done when she’d suspected Namine of mysterious treachery, because she found she was fairly good at it. And Sora was resolved to follow his luck and intuition, with the argument that the last time he had done so, it had resulted in finding _Oathkeeper._ Riku sided with Sora, though he didn’t give a specific reason for doing so. Kairi suspected that he wanted to be in on Sora’s wild ideas for the same reason he had followed him into the forest the night before—it was fun. So they split up, with the girls returning to the mansion and the boys off to the gap in the fence where Sora’s bike was hidden. Kairi gave Riku a conspiratory wink as they left which Riku pretended not to notice.

Roxas bounded over and settled in his spot in the bicycle basket and Sora hopped on his seat, but Riku had halted beside him, uncomfortable and uncertain.

“Get on, then,” Sora prompted with an expectant look.

“We can’t _both_ fit on your bike,” said Riku.

“We both fit that time we escaped the shadow monsters.”

“Yeah, but—you know…that was a desperate situation. This is just—I mean, it’s broad daylight. It’s more embarrassing now.”

“Well it’s not like I have a side-car. And I’m not going to _walk_ my bike down the hill, that’s dumb. So either you get on and we ride together, or you, I don’t know, _run_ and try to keep up.”

Riku grumbled and shuffled his feet in deliberation. Not only was riding on the back of a bicycle undignified, he remembered the close contact the seating arrangement had required, and he wasn’t sure he could handle wrapping his arms around Sora’s waist when the fear and adrenaline of being chased by monsters was absent.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Just get on, already!” he laughed. “This is silly!”

Roxas was chuckling at him, too, and that was the last straw.

“Fine, whatever,” he mumbled, arranging himself on the flat plank over the back wheel where packages were usually tied. He wrapped his arms carefully around Sora’s midsection, determined not to be uncomfortable about it. But Roxas was still laughing at him, and Riku blushed.

“Alright! Here we go!” was all the warning Riku had before Sora shot forward like a bullet. Riku yelped and hugged himself closer to Sora, who was cackling madly as they sped down the road.

After a treacherous ride which Riku wasn’t sure he would survive, they finally slowed to a stop in front of a building next to the railway tracks. But Riku hardly noticed their location, as his head and heart were still reeling from their death-defying plummet down the northern district. His knees, chest, and arms were tingling slightly where they had touched Sora, and he wondered absently what chemicals Sora must be surrounded by, in his apparently poverty-stricken living conditions, for his skin to cause such a reaction upon contact. 

But they hadn’t arrived at Sora’s home, as Riku had assumed. Sora explained that he had taken them to a mechanic shop owned by a man named Cid, with the hopes that he might be able to repair _Oathkeeper_ more professionally. Riku nodded, surprised at how logical that plan sounded.

They entered through the large arched doorway and Sora shouted a greeting to the room’s inhabitants. Red barked with rough excitement and bounded over to place heavy paws on Sora’s shoulders and lick his face. Tidus looked up from the project he was working on, which seemed to be a disemboweled truck engine, and grinned at them with a face smeared in grease. Cid was in the middle of the workshop, hovering over a familiar motorcycle and arguing with the boot-clad feet sticking out from beneath the machine, which apparently belonged to someone working on the bike’s mechanical belly. Cid gave them a grunt of acknowledgement at their entrance, and the person under the motorcycle slid out to see who had come in. Sora’s suspicions were confirmed when Cloud’s familiar mop of hair and cold scowl were revealed.

“Heya Cloud!” Sora chirped. “I thought you got your bike fixed yesterday.”

“I brought it back in. There’s still something wrong with it.”

Cloud’s eyes snapped to Riku and looked him over with suspicion. And Riku, proud noble though he was and personally familiar with the infamous glowers of his uncle, still couldn’t help but gulp under the man’s gaze. Something about Cloud, somewhere between the sharp line of his mouth and the firm weight of his boots just instilled a kind of terror in you.

“So whacha doing here, Sora?” asked Tidus. “Pretty sure we didn’t order anything.”

“No, I’m here on personal business.” Sora had pushed Red away from him at last and went over to stand by Tidus’ work bench. He took out the dagger from the bag at his hip and unwrapped it. “Do you think you can fix this up a bit? Like, sharpen it and stuff? It’s old and kind of damaged, but it’s pretty important so it should be in the best shape possible, if you can manage.”

Tidus held the blade on his palms and examined it with a calculating eye. “Yikes,” he snorted, “this is one tough lump of rust—That is my professional assessment. I’m not exactly a blacksmith, you know. We’re a mechanic shop.”

“But I’ve seen you sharpen things before. That old knife set Mrs. Shelke brought in, and those beat-up axes for Mr. Valentine. Aerith and Zack always bring their tools here when they’re dull. A dagger shouldn’t be too different, right? And the rust will be easy for you, I’ve seen you clean up way worse.”

“True.” Tidus made a face. “Hah, remember that time that guy came in and dropped off that old shot gun—heap of trash, it was, crumbling with rust, couldn’t have been in worse shape if it’d been out in the rain ten years. Were you there for that? Maybe it was Yuna. Anyway, this rich blond guy waltzes in, two henchmen with him dressed in suits, I swear it. Drops that in front of me, says ‘listen kid, if you fix this up good as new, no questions asked, there’s two hundred munny in it for you.' Well, shit, that shot gun was worth maybe thirty tops, just for scrap. But rich people are weird like that. So I took it in, and damn, by the time it was done, it was gleaming like a mirror and shitting bullets the way it ought to.”

“I remember that,” smiled Sora. “You were bragging about it for a week. Bought yourself new overalls with the munny.”

“Bought a hell of a lot more than that! Somehow Yuna ended up with most of it, though,” he laughed. “Alright, I’ll do it. I’ll fix this blade up so fine it can cut air. I am nothing it not diverse in my talents.”

“I can pay for it,” said Riku with an air of importance, because he felt he ought to. But he regretted it immediately at the look Sora and Tidus gave him for it. “I mean, I’d like to,” he faltered, “if it’s an issue. Or even if it isn’t. I just—I’ll pay for it.” He managed to clamp his mouth shut at last.

Tidus gave Riku a wry grin. “I don’t generally charge Sora for anything. But you look like a rich guy, and rich guys are always a little funny. So sure, I’ll charge you. I’ll tell you what it’ll cost when I’m done, how’s that?” He gave a good-natured laugh and thrust a grimy hand out to him. “I’m Tidus, by the way.”

“Ah, Riku. Nice you meet you.” Riku shook the offered hand gingerly, trying to hide his grimace over the dirt and grease now covering his own palm. He gave a discreet look around for something to clean his hand with, but every rag he saw was blackened with more filth. He was at a loss for what to do.

Meanwhile, Sora and Tidus were now involved in an energetic discussion of the dagger, and Sora regaled his companion with the story of how they’d found it. Though it had certainly been a strange experience, somehow Sora’s telling of it turned their adventure into something bizarre and surreal which bore only a vague and technical resemblance to what had actually happened. Tidus nodded along with an amused grin, not believing a word.

Since he was busy telling his tale, Sora was no longer paying attention to the large, ferocious-looking dog, and so the dog turned his attention to Riku. Unfortunately, for Riku, all Red wanted to do was to stick his cold, wet nose into Riku’s crotch. Riku tried to bend out of the way or block the dog’s snout with his hand and guide him elsewhere, but Red was incredibly insistent and remarkably strong. And so Riku was forced to endure this violation and humiliation in distressed but stifled silence until Cid at last called the dog away.

The relief was short-lived, however, as Cloud then turned his attention to him. Riku felt more in danger under his glare than he had with the dog’s teeth near his groin.

“Oh, yeah, Cloud, this is my friend Riku. I told you about him the other day. Riku, this is Cloud. He’s my boss and stuff,” provided Sora helpfully.

“Hello,” tried Riku with a strain of a smile. “It’s um…nice to meet you.”

“Hm.” If anything, Cloud’s eyes narrowed. “You look familiar,” he said. Which was not something one wanted to hear from a man already trying to murder you with his eyes. Riku searched his memory frantically for any recollection of crimes he may have unwittingly committed against him, but came up empty.

“Okay,” was all Riku could think of to say.

This adventure was a lot less fun than the one he’d followed Sora on last time, he decided.

“’Course he does,” spat Cid. “Gray hair, pale face, greenish eyes. He’s gotta be a Jenova.” By Cid’s tone, this didn’t seem to win Riku any favor.

“Harvey, actually,” said Riku, trying not to sound defensive. “Riku _Harvey_. Sephiroth Jenova is my uncle.”

“His hair’s not really gray, though,” said Sora. He was looking over Riku’s hair thoughtfully, and Riku had to fight a blush over the intensity of the examination. “I’d say it’s more of a silvery-white.” This sounded like a compliment when Sora said it, and Riku lost the battle against his blush.

“Uncle, huh?” said Cid, who suddenly was a lot closer than he had been a moment before. He leaned in close and squinted one eye as he looked Riku up and down. “And how’s that association working out for ya?”

“Um, not badly, I guess. I’m not exactly starving. But I wouldn’t say it’s an entirely pleasant experience, either. In fact, I would highly recommend you avoid being his nephew, if possible,” said Riku.

Cid stared him down for a tense moment more before barking out a sudden hearty laugh. “You’re not bad, kid,” he said with a heavy clap on Riku’s back. “Not bad at all!”

If smiling was something Riku did easily and regularly, he might have done so at that moment. As it was, he was busy wondering whether or not he now had a large, hand-shaped smear of filth on the back of his jacket.

Cid seemed to feel that Riku’s status as nobility made him a prime person to talk politics with, and he launched into a rant about various policies he disagreed with. Riku was on the brink of overwhelmed, for Cid was rather intimidating.

“That uncle of yours is a real piece of work,” he was saying. “Just where does he get off with that new tax hike o’ his, huh? Fair ‘n moderate my ass! Is it going to fix the railway? Nope. Is it smoothin’ out these dams streets with all their damn potholes? Nope! Is it goin’ to the little kiddies in their little schools? Not a chance! It’s all so the damn army can all have shiny new boots and silky little panties for them to shit themselves in! Where the hell is the sense in that, I ask ya! And he calls this _governing_!”

“Yes, well, they’re all very excited about the war,” said Riku ruefully. A thought occurred to him, and he frowned. “The tax hike was one of Xehanort’s policies, actually. I’m not much of a fan of his.”

“The war! The _war_! Everyone ‘n their mother’s getting’ their jollies off over the _war_ ,” Cid spat. “Let me ask, ya, just what in the _hell_ is goin’ on in those tin buckets those monkey generals call their heads?  Huh? Some soldiers just attack some poor fools on Mi'ihan road the other day, you hear about that? And are they gonna get court marshaled? Not a chance! Sephiroth waved their crimes! It’s in the papers! They got off scot-free. No wonder Brahne’s having a hernia!”

“Those guys got off? The ones who killed those people?” asked Tidus, frowning. “Read about that in the news yesterday. It’s a damn shame.” Sora frowned too, remembering the conversation he’d overheard the army officers having in the mansion foyer.

“Yeah, they did,” Riku answered with a grimace. The mansion had been buzzing with the scandal. “General Leonhart and Mage General Aqua were against it, but Lieutenants  Xemnas and Terra made the case for them and Sephiroth sided with them. And you know…Xehanort has both those Lieutenants in his pocket.”

“That’s too bad,” said Sora. “I know Squall Leonhart was pretty mad when he heard about what happened. Those guys not getting punished probably made him more upset.”

Cloud gave Sora an odd frown. “And how would you know how Squall Leonhart felt about anything?”

“Cuz I talked to him the other day. He’s funny, I could see why you used to like him,” Sora beamed.

Cloud’s narrow eyes widened in shock and his face paled in what could only be fear. “You _talked_ to him?”

“Yup.”

Cloud swallowed thickly, his mouth suddenly far too dry. “And what did you say to him, exactly?” he asked, voice somewhat faint.

“The usual,” Sora answered. “I introduced myself, told him I knew you, talked about the delivery shop and stuff. And he kept being like ‘ _what_? _what_?’ It was good.”

“What!” Cloud all but yelped.

“Yeah, just like that! You do a pretty good impression of him!” Sora laughed.

Cloud’s mouth worked to form words, but no sound escaped. His expression was pure terror.

Riku revised his earlier opinion—this adventure was turning out all right after all. He was pleased to find that this sort of reaction to Sora was common for everyone.

“Oh, yeah, and he came by the delivery shop yesterday, too, but you weren’t there. Aerith talked to him, though,” Sora added.

“He wh—he was at the _shop_?” Cloud managed at last. “Why would he—and why would _you_! You told him I was in Nomura? And then he _came to the shop_?”

“Yup. I didn’t tell him where the shop was, though. He must have figured that one out on his own.” 

“I need...to sit." He went to one of the stools by Cid’s workbench and slumped down with his forehead on the table.

 

* * *

 

Roxas had curled himself up in a sunny spot beside the bicycle while he waited for Sora and Riku to finish their business in the mechanic shop. As usual, Roxas did not dare step foot inside the building, as he was not particularly fond of being chased by the guard dog. Red was usually well-behaved, but the animal could sense that Roxas was not a normal cat, and the anomaly confused him enough to make him want to attack. The first few times he and Sora had gone to the shop together had been disastrous, and though Roxas had never been hurt, he had definitely learned his lesson.

His large ears twitched slightly as he napped, listening to the amusing conversation going on inside. He was tempted to peek his head in just to see the look on Cloud’s face, but he thought better of it since it required more effort than he was willing to exert.

“Woo, I’m beat, let me tell you,” sighed a voice suddenly next to him. Roxas jerked up in a snap, ears flattened and hackles raised, to find Axel lounging against the wall of the mechanic shop beside him as if he’d been there the whole time. “See, I’ve been chasing after this nutty kid for three days, and I am _worn out_.” Axel glanced at Roxas from the side of his eye and smirked. “I hope you don’t mind me taking a short break here,” he said breezily. “This is a prime napping spot you’ve got.”

Roxas was frozen in place and his mind drew a panicked blank over what to do. It was too late to scamper away and there wasn’t anything good to hide under close by. He was trapped.

“Aw, don’t look like that,” said Axel. “I’m sure I bite less than you do.” A toothy grin spread across his long face, and his bottle-green eyes twinkled with triumph.

“Shit,” said Roxas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Selphie's bee sting love test was something I picked up from a short story by Truman Capote called "House of Flowers." I liked the aesthetic, and apparently I have a bit of an unintentional insect theme in this story.
> 
> Also a huge thanks to Besieged Infection for helping me edit!


	12. The Question Conundrum

The great blazing apple of heat and light commonly known as the sun ambled across the sky in an unhurried stroll through the late afternoon. Far below this mass of gaseous energy, down where the turmoil and indigestion erupting in that massive plasma belly appeared little more than a placid bulb of light, sat a very smug man and a very distressed cat who were embroiled in a bit of turmoil of their own. The man was insisting on talking to the cat despite the fact that doing so would make any casual passerby think he was insane, as well as the knowledge that the cat obviously wanted nothing to do with him. If the man felt any hesitations about continuing his conversational ambitions because of either of these deterrents, however, he showed no sign of it.

"You know, there's no need to be so upset," he was saying. "Really, _I'm_ the one who should be angry, not you—I'm actually quite offended by all this running-away-from-me-business. It's rather insulting." By his tone, of course, it didn't sound as if Axel was insulted in the least. He had seated himself down against the wall of the mechanic shop beside an increasingly unnerved Roxas, with his spindled limbs stretched and folded in spidery angles.

Roxas huddled further in on himself and said nothing. His eyes were narrowed in sour suspicion and his ears flattened defensively. Feet had been tucked carefully beneath him, ready to spring up and away as soon as he deemed it necessary. He resolved not to utter a single word to the gangly maniac beside him.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, already. What's the big deal? I just wanna talk to you. It's not like I'm trying to collect your taxes or anything."

Roxas only scowled.

"Hm, silent treatment, huh? You really know how to hurt a guy. Cuts real deep. Well, at least you aren't running. I'd say that's a start. I really do hate it when people run away from me, maybe more than your average person. Abandonment issues or something, I guess. And chasing is so much _work_. Some people love the chase, they say it's half the fun. Not me, though. No way. I don't buy into that crap and neither should you."

He shifted against the wall to fish something out of the deep pocket of his dark coat and produced a slim cigarette. "But I guess if you don't want to talk, that's fine. I usually talk enough for two people anyway, so it works out. I have a lovely speaking voice, if I do say so myself. And I'm not the only one who says so—Do you mind if I smoke? No? I'm gonna take your lack of response as a go-ahead. That's the drawback of not speaking up, I'm afraid." He'd already placed the cigarette between his lips, and it bobbed like a conductor's baton as he spoke. When he snapped his fingers, a small flicker of flame appeared over his thumb like a match which he used to light accordingly. He took a leisurely drag and gave a slow exhale. The loose smoke took a life of its own once released from behind thin lips and formed into intricate spirals that danced away in acrobatic loops and twirls to join the clouds above.

Roxas blinked at the bewitched smoke, surprised.

"You like that?" asked Axel, his wily eyes bright as he grinned down at the cat. "If you can't use your magic for amusing parlor tricks then what's the point? That's what I always say. But that's nothing—Watch this." The next exhale brought a succession of smoke rings that changed from gray to red to blue to green before they dissolved into colorful wisps. The third go evolved into a vaguely dragon-shaped stream with a long, snake-like body wriggling up past the roof of the mechanic shop.

Roxas gawked, but when he noticed Axel watching him, he scowled once more.

"No? Nothing? Not even a peep? Tough crowd, tough crowd." He flicked a bit of ash off the end of his cigarette and sighed. "You know, I'm not a bad person. At least, I like to think not. Frankly I think you're being a little unfair here. I just want to talk to you."

"You don't want to _talk_ , you want to _lecture,_ " snapped Roxas. And just like that, his vow of silence melted in the heat of his sudden fury, a burst of rage not unlike the fiery explosions occurring within the seemingly-solemn sun high above them. "That's what you tried to do last time. I don't need you telling me I'm wasting my talent or that something's wrong with me. What would you know about it, anyway? Fuck you. Leave me alone." His heart raced with the adrenaline of indignation.

"Fair enough," Axel granted with an apologetic nod. He accepted Roxas' outburst with the patience of someone aiming to be forgiven as soon as possible, palms turned upward in humility and face drawn with meek guilt. "I realize that the last time we spoke, I may not have been the most understanding. I may have said some things that could be interpreted as offensive, even if I did not intended them to be, and for that I am truly—"

Roxas gave a derisive snort.

Axel's teeth clenched at the interruption of what would have been a moving and excellently-worded apology. "I guess I deserve that. I was pretty condescending, wasn't I?" He offered a self-deprecating smile.

"' _Who in their right mind would prefer to be a cat_?'" Roxas mimicked an unflattering impression. "That's what you said. I don't need to hear that kind of shit from some con-man transient like you. You don't know me." Roxas turned his head away sharply to glare at the dirt-crusted cobblestones beneath him. He hoped Axel didn't catch on to the fact that Roxas remembered word-for-word everything Axel had accused him of that night in the forest after their fight with the Nothing Man. Or that Roxas had replayed that interaction over about a million times in his head, alternatively constructing brilliant arguments for every way Axel was wrong or agreeing with him completely, until his head pounded and his stomach ached.

"You are perfectly right. I shouldn't have said that." Axel's self-criticism was eager and enthusiastic. The easiest way to be forgiven, he knew, was to let someone accuse you of everything they could think of and then to agree with them wholeheartedly. "I hate when people try to tell _me_ what to do, and yet there I was, doing the exact same thing to you. Doesn't it always happen that you end up becoming the very thing you despise most? I'm really quite ashamed of it."

"Good."

"I was just surprised, is all. A bad reaction, yes, but I'm trying to apologize here." Axel paused a moment to give Roxas an opportunity to accept the apology, but Roxas' silence was firm. He refused to make eye contact, and therefore did not see the perfectly-constructed expression of regret on Axel's face.

"And you're right," Axel tried again. "I don't know you. Which makes me entirely unqualified to judge any and all life decisions you make. But I'd _like_ to know you—Not so I can judge you, obviously. That's not what I want. I just want to get to know you." He scratched his head just for something to do to cover his awkward floundering and nearly forgot the burning cigarette between his fingers. He frowned and continued smoking instead. Perhaps this would not be as easy as he had anticipated.

"Why?"

"Why do I want to know you? Well, you're a fascinating case, that's why. A shape-shifter mage who lives as a cat. It's almost like you're a shape-shifter _cat_ who can turn into a human rather than the other way around. It's unusual, it's an oddity—and I am all about unusual oddities. They make life worth living, I think."

"I'm not some natural phenomenon for you to gawk at. Just go away already," Roxas growled.

"You're right, you're right, of course not. I don't want to put you in a museum or anything, obviously. You're a living, thinking, feeling being. I phrased that badly, I guess," he backpedaled, hands waving. Words were Axel's best tool and he normally excelled at convincing people of anything he wanted through a clever twist of phrase. Now, however, he seemed to be stumbling at every turn.

"I guess what I mean is that it's impressive. I know quite a few shape-shifter mages, see, but I am absolutely _certain_ that none of them can hold their non-human form for as long as you can. A couple hours, max. Maybe a day, but that would be considered amazing in most academic circles—lots of praise and awards and people congratulating each other, yadda yadda. And yet here you are, making those great mages who've been training all their lives look like rookie freshmen still figuring out the difference between their ass and their thumbs. You know? So I just wanted to talk to you, get to know you maybe, see what's what. I'm intrigued. And when I'm intrigued, I tend to keep at it 'til I get to the bottom of things. I'm a meddler. I meddle. It's both a strength and flaw, depending on your perspective."

"Definitely a flaw, then," said Roxas. But it was spoken with more snark than anger, softened faintly, if unwillingly, after such compliments.

Axel barked a laugh and grinned at the sullen cat. Roxas had relaxed his hostile crouch just slightly, resigning himself to the conversation, and Axel meant to stretch the inch he was given as far as he could. "So tell me, what's the story? Where did you train? What's the secret?" He was poised with anticipation like a taut rubber band. His cigarette had burned down to a stub but Axel was too engrossed with the promise of answers to notice the embers nearly at his knuckles.

"I didn't train anywhere. There's no secret. Sorry to disappoint."

A creased formed between his brow. "What do you mean you didn't train anywhere?"

"I mean I didn't train anywhere. Simple as that. Not everyone is privileged enough to go off to fancy academies, thank you very much." Roxas snarled. He had tensed again with furious resentment, tail twitching and hair raising, the warning look of a cat just before it struck an unwelcome hand. Whatever leeway he had relented retracted as quickly as a snake's flickering tongue.

"So who taught you, then?" Axel was left more baffled now that his question had been answered. Which he should have predicted, really; Answers rarely leave one as satisfied as expected, and instead usually generate more questions to ponder, propagating exponentially in a mathematical loop driving humankind mad in its quest for understanding. He blinked with open surprise at the cat, who was beginning more and more to resemble a spiked sea urchin.

"It doesn't matter," snapped Roxas viciously. "And what makes you think you can just ask me invasive personal questions, anyway? Who said I have to tell you my life story just because you asked for it? I don't care if you're _intrigued_. I don't owe you shit. So get your arrogant, smooth-talking, fucking _fancy_ - _educated_ ass back to whatever social experiment you crawled out of and leave me the fuck alone!" Roxas sprang up from his ball and sprinted off down the alley, away from the mechanic shop and the things he didn't want to think about.

"And now we're back to the running," sighed Axel. He noticed his spent cigarette at last and crushed it into the pavement with the toe of his boot before standing up.

Unfortunately for Roxas, Axel's legs were quite long, and he caught up to him easily now that there was no speeding bicycle aiding his getaway. He walked beside the cat as if the two of them were taking an afternoon stroll rather than engaging in a chase. "Okay okay, I get it," he said. "It's a touchy subject. I won't push. You need your space and you can have it. I'm sorry, alright?"

Roxas continued his purposeful stride, refusing to acknowledge his unwanted companion.

Which, again, was a fairly predictable reaction that Axel might have expected. But the same arithmetic conundrum of answers producing questions instead of the other way around, which has caused many a great mind to explode in exhaustion, is also the process by which creative discovery and scientific invention are born—Another instance in which the journey is more interesting than the destination. And with such a fascinating buzz of mystery surrounding the subject, Axel couldn't help but wonder what extraordinary things he might learn while on the quest to figure out what sort of wonky clockwork made Roxas the Moody Cat-Boy tick. The fact that Roxas seemed immune to his persuasive charm just made the challenge all the more compelling.

Although, if he thought about it, Axel was pretty sure he knew quite a bit about Roxas already; As he followed the silently fuming cat along the sidewalk, it occurred to him that Roxas reminded Axel of himself when he was younger. Furrier, obviously, and less talkative, but he recognized that pain and hatred—unwieldy and terrifying, directionless and therefore directed at everything and so heavy a burden that it consumed in a raging fire.

And of course with that realization, there was no way Axel could give up on him now.

"I've got an idea," he said. "In order to prove my apology and show you how _truly_ sorry I am for crossing your obviously very strict personal boundaries, let me make it up to you. Do you like ice cream?"

Roxas dared a disdainful look up at Axel, and in a single glare conveyed all the contempt it was possible for a person to contain and then some. Axel considered this a good sign.

"Of _course_ you like ice cream. Who doesn't like ice cream? Let's get come ice cream! I've heard Scrooge's has the best sea salt in town. I'm buying. What d'ya say?"

Blue cat eyes narrowed. "You like sea salt ice cream?"

"Well it's only the best flavor, so how could I not? Salty, yet sweet. What a notion! I live for contradictions, and you can't get much more contrary than that, am I right?"

"Fine," Roxas grumbled resentfully. "Buy me some goddamned ice cream."

"As you wish, my fine furry friend." Axel's grin was wide enough to crinkle the diamond tattoos on his cheeks.

Two bars of sea-salt-flavored ice cream were purchased as soon as possible, and they sat on a deserted street curb to enjoy them. Axel held his own dripping bar in one hand and Roxas' in his other, lowered for a cat tongue to reach. It seemed Axel had found the key to Roxas' acceptance—or at least the path to his better mood. As the two of them consumed their cold treats, Roxas' own icy exterior eased and relaxed until he hardly seemed to mind Axel's company at all.

"You know, this would probably be easier if you turned into a human and held your own ice cream," said Axel offhandedly. His arm would get tired soon from holding Roxas' bar out for him.

"Fuck you," Roxas offered reasonably.

"Right," Axel nodded.

"You could have gotten a bowl. Sora always gets me a bowl."

"Ah, the noble Sora. Thoughtful and true. How he comforts and provides for those in need. Bowls galore! Well, I'm too lazy to walk all the way back there and ask for a bowl—I am but a common mortal to his holy light, after all." Axel gestured dramatically with his ice cream and a few melting drips splattered quietly on the street.

"And so here we are. You get to hold my ice cream for me."

"Here we are indeed," Axel smiled. He took an ambitious bite of his bar and was rewarded with the uncomfortable zing of cold teeth that went straight to his brain. He must have made a face because Roxas chuckled at him.

"Oh, you think that's funny, do you? My pain amuses you?"

"You should be used to it," said Roxas with a sly cat-smile. "You're a clown, aren't you? People laugh at clowns."

"I'm not a _clown_ , I'm a _performer_ ," Axel sniffed in pretension. "There's a difference. My craft requires finesse and talent. My acts depend on the flare, charisma, and ability of my skill. I do not simply honk a horn and take pies to the face. The art of entertaining is much more complex than that."

"How long have you been a traveling performer?"

"Oh, it's hard to say," he hummed vaguely. "I've been performing since I could combine walking and talking, I suppose, or maybe before even that. When I was young, my life and livelihood depended on my charm and wit. I had to get by with what I could manage to provide for myself—a flashy trick could grant me a good meal maybe, or a clever joke a room for the night. The harsh life of a dedicated entertainer looking for fortune and fame, traveling the world in a whirlwind of crazy dreams."

"No, really. How long have you been a traveling performer?" Roxas repeated. "And don't lie this time."

Axel's eyebrows raised but Roxas met the surprise with his own look of expectant defiance. Axel's lips thinned.

"About a month."

Roxas nodded with satisfaction.

"How could you tell?" Axel asked through a braced, jaw-clenched grimace.

"I can always spot a liar when I see one," Roxas answered simply before continuing with his ice cream. "Don't feel bad," he added at Axel's tight expression. "Almost everyone's a liar."

" _Almost_ everyone?"

"Well, everyone but Sora, I guess."

"Back to the heroic Sora." Axel permitted himself an eye roll.

"My brother wasn't a liar, either," Roxas continued quietly. Axel's head snapped down to look at him, his irritation replaced with burning interest. "Or my dad, really. And my mum only lied when she thought it would protect us."

"I'm noticing some past tense verbs there," Axel said carefully after a moment.

"Past tense," Roxas agreed. The was a silent stretch of minutes in which Roxas provided nothing more and Axel wondered whether it would be a good idea to push this newly-granted confidence a bit further or if more questions would cause Roxas to shut down on him again.

"They're dead," Roxas clarified eventually, just when it seemed neither of them would ever speak again.

"I'm sorry," Axel offered. He examined Roxas' ice cream, uneaten and oozing sticky melt all over his hand. Roxas did the same, though the option of eating it no longer seemed to occur to him. "Do you mind if I ask how they—"

"Yes. I mind," Roxas cut in.

Axel blinked in surprise. Roxas was surprised, too, confused that he had offered information at all. He couldn't decide whether or not he wanted to tell this stranger about himself. What he _did_ know was that he didn't want Axel _asking_ him about any of it. Which didn't really make sense. But few things made sense to Roxas about the way his own head worked these days. The logical, calm part of him was at odds with the irrational, crazy side once again—only he couldn't tell which side wanted to confide and which side wanted to keep it locked up forever.

"Alright, no problem. Sensitive issue, I get it," said Axel, soberly returning to his dessert. "I notice you didn't exclude yourself from the general group of liars, there."

"Of course not. I'm the biggest liar of all, I lie about my own _species_. Who else can say they deceive people about such a fundamental aspect of their identity?"

"Well, lying isn't always bad. At least not when it's not hurting other people, right? Sometimes lies can be better than the truth—or more interesting at least. Take me for example. So I haven't been a traveling performer all my life. So what? No one was ever hurt by a bit of creative embellishment. I can still juggle and tell stories and breathe fire, and that's what makes people happy. The truth is so repulsively boring. Who wants to hear about a middle-class, bourgeois kid whose loving, if somewhat eccentric parents sent him off to a mage academy close to home, where he earned average marks and never did or ate anything particularly extraordinary? Nobody wants to hear about something as dull as the truth."

"That's why you lie, then? To make yourself seem more interesting?"

"Now now, don't get me wrong. I'm not exactly Mr. Joe Average or anything. I've got real stories that can knock your socks off. I'm still me, I'm still absolutely amazing and hilarious. My life may not have been terribly gritty or harrowing, but it's been a pretty interesting one, I think. You know, what with all the unusual oddities I seek out and meddle with. It's just that those stories would contradict parts of the persona I've built for myself. Stories of sticking it to the man in an uptight middle class world wouldn't exactly make sense coming from an apparent transient performer, you know? So I spin some tales, embellish a bit. People want to see a street performance from a genuine, bona fide vagabond, you know? So what harm does it do to give them one?"

"You're lying again," Roxas pointed out as he returned casually to his dessert.

"What!" Axel balked. "How can I be lying about that?"

"I dunno, but you are. There's more to it than that. You wouldn't lie about being educated just to make an audience think you were more authentic. You're hiding something still."

"Tch, obnoxious kid," Axel muttered, annoyed at being thwarted yet again.

"So what's the deal, then? Why do this at all?"

"What, you get to ask me personal questions, but I can't ask you anything? Seems unfair," he scoffed.

"Well that's how it is. Life's not fair." Roxas was particularly pleased with himself over that line.

Axel made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a sigh and bit off the last chunk of his ice cream. He chewed it over grumpily, and when that was finished, he fished out another cigarette from his pocket and settled it between sugar-coated lips before lighting it with his thumb again. He took a long drag and let the smoke billow from his mouth and nostrils in a thoughtful cloud. He glanced over and found Roxas watching him steadily with those blue, blue eyes. Expectant. Unnerving. He took another drag of his cigarette.

"Alright," he said at last through an exhale of smoke, "I'll tell you my story, and then maybe you'll feel like you can let me in on a few of _your_ secrets. Huh? How does that sound?"

"Mm, I'll think about it," Roxas hummed, head tilted with the kind of haughty boredom that all cats have perfected.

"It's pretty confidential, though. I don't exactly go around confiding in every stubborn kid with angst issues I meet. But I guess it's not like you're going to spill the beans on me, seeing as it doesn't seem like you talk to all that many people. You know, with the whole cat thing you've got going on."

"Exposing you would risk exposing myself, it's true," agreed Roxas. "But I'll probably tell Sora. And who knows who _he'll_ tell. So maybe you shouldn't trust me."

"What, you don't want to know my secret after all?"

"Hey, I'm just telling you how it is. I pretty much tell Sora everything, it's kind of impossible not to. So if you don't want to risk it, I'd understand. Besides," he added quietly, "if you don't tell me yours, I don't have to tell you mine."

"Aha. So we've come to an impasse. Either we resolve to keep to ourselves, despite our obviously _burning_ curiosity to discover what the other is hiding—and don't try to tell me you're not dying to know what I got—or we open up, let ourselves trust someone else with our secrets, and risk exposure. What a situation we have, a real knuckle-biter indeed." Axel gave a crooked grin and Roxas returned it just a bit.

"So if I tell you my secret, you'll tell me yours, right?" Axel asked.

"Maybe."

"What! _Maybe?_ Come on, I need more than that. I'm not going to tell you anything if I don't have a guarantee on a return."

"What do you want, a contract?"

"Don't be a jerk."

"A _jerk_? What kind of insult is that?" Roxas snorted.

"An apt one, in this case," Axel insisted. "Come on, you going to tell me or not?"

"If you tell me yours, I'll tell it to Sora."

"Yeah, well I've heard Sora trying to tell people things and I'm not exactly worried. He has a way of making the truth sound like a poorly-translated absurdist play. It's because he always tells things exactly as they are, I think—he gets to the real core of reality. And of course when you get down to the exact heart of anything, it starts to sound insane. And thus he is cursed with always telling the truth and never being believed. An interesting situation by all accounts."

Roxas chuckled. "That's Sora, alright."

"So? Do I hear a promise from you? An equal exchange? A trade of personal mysteries?"

Roxas sighed. "Fine," he said. Which felt crazy. The kind of impulsive, radical decision you make when you detach yourself from the implications or consequences. He couldn't decide which part of him, the crazy or the logical, had spoken those words. It was exhilarating.

Axel's eyes lit up like a child receiving a long-awaited present. "Really? You'll tell me?"

"Keep asking and I'll change my mind." Roxas flicked his tail testily.

"Excellent!" he beamed. He sobered slightly after a pointed glare from Roxas. "Right, right. Ah, well, I guess I better start then. Hold up my end, huh?" He ran a hand through his drastic mane of hair and looked around nervously while sucking on his cigarette. "Maybe we better, ah, you know, move to a more private location."

"There's no one here," said Roxas. He glanced around the street, but found it as empty as it had been when they'd sat down. It was almost eerie how quiet it was, really.

"Yeah, well, you never know who might be listening. I could actually get in some deep shit if unwanted ears caught wind of what I'm about to tell you." He stood and craned his neck to further examine his surroundings, apparently searching for spies in every window.

"Please, don't flatter yourself," Roxas scoffed. "I'm sure you're not that important."

"Okay, well, still. I'd like to avoid trouble, if possible." His eyes were shifty and his hands fidgeted uneasily with his cigarette.

"What kind of trouble?" Roxas asked, a shade more serious when Axel's nerves didn't prove to be the dramatic act he had assumed they were.

"The kind that lands you in jail, thank you very much. Come on, follow me." With that, Axel started off down the street at a brisk pace, hands shoved into his coat pockets and cigarette trailing smoke in cloudy bursts.

Roxas rolled his eyes and followed after him. He found, with some surprise and a small bit of alarm, that he was grinning.

* * *

 

Sora was not particularly worried when Roxas was nowhere to be found outside the mechanic shop that afternoon. Roxas had a tendency to sometimes slip off without announcement to do his own thing for a while and was usually back in their apartment by dinner time. Sora figured it was part of the healing process and didn't question him much (though a note would have been nice). So when he and Riku left Cid's, entrusting _Oathkeeper_ to Tidus' capable hands, it was just the two of them. Which was perfectly fine by Riku since it meant there was no cat to snicker at him on the back of a bicycle.

The conversation about where the bike would take them next probably should have been discussed before they started riding it. The small search for Roxas could arguably have been the culprit, distracting them for a few minutes from their goal, but the fact of the matter is that it was just so natural for them to arrange themselves on the red contraption and start off without a second thought.

"So, where are we going now?" Riku asked about ten minutes into the more or less aimless ride around town. He had to shout into Sora's ear to be heard over the rushing wind of their velocity, and a bump in the road made him jolt so that his lips ended up much closer to Sora's ear than he intended. He jerked his head back and blushed, hoping Sora did not realize how close Riku had been to biting his ear.

"Mm, I dunno. Where do you wanna go?" Sora answered, looking at him over his shoulder (which meant he wasn't watching the road and they were heading straight for a parked automobile at a million miles an hour and _ohgod_ they were going to crash and Riku opened his mouth to shout—but Sora gave a casual lean without even looking and the bike swooped around the car easily with a wide berth, and actually they hadn't been that close at all).

"Wh—where do _I_ want to go?" Riku spluttered (heart definitely _not_ pounding and breathing _totally_ under control). "You mean, you don't have a destination in mind? We're just riding around and not actually going anywhere?"

"We're going lots of places. We're just not stopping at any of them," Sora shrugged, turning back to the road in time to jostle them down a short flight of stairs.

"Semantics," Riku scoffed around rattling teeth. "Alright, we'd better figure out what to do next. We have a shadow mage to destroy and a city to save, after all. We don't exactly have time for a sight-seeing bike tour, _lovely_ as it is."

"Very true," Sora agreed. They swerved past a pair of green-clad soldiers marching shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk and earned themselves a sharp reprimand to slow down.

"So what kinds of things did you do yesterday that led you to finding the fireflies? Maybe we could do something similar."

"Um, I dunno. I just did whatever I felt like doing at the time, I didn't exactly have a plan. I figure it's best to live in the moment, go with the flow, you know? The universe tends to work things out on its own if you don't stress too much about it."

Typical Sora logic, Riku thought with a frown. The issue was that there was quite a lot to stress about. It was all well and good for Sora to talk about going with the flow, but unlike Riku, _he_ didn't have disturbing shadow monsters attempting to eat _his_ soul every few nights. However, Sora's easy outlook seemed to work pretty well for him—it had led them to the dagger, after all, as well as the discovery of the evil plot in the first place. So perhaps Riku could learn a thing or two from living in the moment. It would certainly ease his blood pressure, at least.

"Okay then, where does the moment seem like it's taking you right now? Any special universe tingles leading you one way or another?" he asked.

"Nope, no tingles. Well, my leg itches a little, but that's more of a bug bite issue," said Sora.

"That's too bad."

"It doesn't itch that much. It should be gone in a day or two."

"No, I meant it's too bad you don't have universe-tingles—God, I can't believe I just said that sentence."

"You were the one who called it 'universe tingles' in the first place," Sora chuckled.

"That's beside the point!" Riku said through a smile.

"Is it, though?"

"It _is_. Because the _point_ is that we are following your whims and intuition in order to stop us all from suffering a horrible and rather premature death. And if your whims and intuition aren't leading us anywhere beside a scenic ride through town, then we are in trouble."

"Ah, yes, good point."

"So? How do we remedy this?" insisted Riku.

"Let's go wherever you want to go," Sora answered.

"Me?" Riku blinked in surprise.

"Yeah! Right now, the moment has brought me _you_. So I think we should go wherever _you_ want to go. I've decided."

"You've decided?" Riku repeated flatly.

"I've decided that the universe has decided that you have to decide." Sora gave a punctuating nod.

"Oh _really_? That's how it's going to be, huh?"

"Hey, I don't make the rules."

Riku snorted, and though he could only see the back of his head, Riku could tell Sora was grinning, too.

"Fine. If I really have to choose, then… take a left here."

Sora did as instructed, and Riku proceeded to direct them through the city with seemingly arbitrary decisions to turn this way or that, to keep straight for a while, and, hm, maybe turn around and go the other way, actually.

They arrived eventually at Crescent Park, a pretty patch of nature nestled exactly between the northern and western districts, carpeted by tall grasses dappled with wildflowers and watched over by broad oak trees. The park sat on cliffs overlooking the bay not too far below them, and benches were all angled for a good view of that vast expanse of blue on blue. A low wooden fence kept all but the most determined from falling over the edge, though the cliffs themselves were neither dangerously steep nor particularly tall. Meandering footpaths snaked their way through the park around a bean-shaped pond and along the cliff side.

"Crescent Park, huh? Nice," Sora said with an appreciative look around as he pulled up.

"It's one of my favorite places in the city," said Riku. They dismounted and set off along the path.

"You like it more than your library?"

"I don't spend _all_ my time in libraries, I'll have you know," Riku sniffed. "I am a man with many interests. I happen to _love_ the outdoors."

"You didn't seem to love it too much when we were in the forest last night," Sora said with a cheeky grin.

"Yes, well it was dark and there was _mud_ —not to mention the _ghost_. Not exactly nature at its finest."

"So you only like nature when it's nice and calm."

"Don't go putting words in my mouth! Anyone would react poorly to being lost in a haunted forest at night, it doesn't mean they can't enjoy being outside under normal circumstances!" Riku scowled, offended, but he softened when Sora gave a good-natured laugh.

Riku led them to an oak tree which had grown at a pronounced angle with broad branches that dipped low enough toward the ground to reach about Sora's chest height. As expected, Sora took to the tree instantly. He leaned his bike against the trunk and proceeded to climb up one of the low, mostly-horizontal limbs. He arranged himself into a comfortable sitting spot and swung his legs below him in satisfaction.

"You know, there _is_ a bench," Riku sighed, gesturing to the bench beside him.

"Why sit on a bench when you can sit in a tree?" was Sora's sound reasoning. "Come on up, the view's better from here anyway."

Riku chuckled before hoisting himself up to sit on the branch beside Sora. He perched gingerly, like a bird contemplating flight, trying not to let his clothes snag on the bark.

"The view isn't all that much different than it was four feet lower," he said.

"It's the principle that counts," Sora insisted. "Hey look, you can see a boat way out there!" he pointed out a small white triangle floating atop the otherwise featureless mass of water. "It'd be cool if we saw a whale or something, but I don't think there are any that migrate around here this time of year. And dolphins are probably too small to see from way over here."

"Probably," Riku shrugged. He didn't know much about marine life.

"When I was a kid, I used to see whales all the time—well, maybe not _all_ the time, but often enough, you know. And dolphins, too. So many dolphins! There was this one time I was in my dad's boat and this pod of 'em came right up to me, jumping around, almost crashed into the boat!" Sora smiled with hazy nostalgia. "Anyway, there was this one that just kind of stopped and stared at me for a bit, and I was staring at him, and we had, like, a connection."

"Did you live by the ocean when you were young, then?" asked Riku.

"Oh yeah. I grew up on a little island _waaaaay_ out there," he said, pointing again toward the sea and squinting as if he could see the island from where they sat. "Just a tiny speck of land no one's ever heard of, part of the Destiny Island Chain. I come from a long line of fishermen."

"Really? Wow, I…didn't know that," said Riku, surprised at the sudden insight into Sora's history. He'd assumed that Sora had grown up in Nomura, due to Sora's expert knowledge of the city streets, if nothing else. Riku was slightly perturbed at the realization that though he had confided more or less all of his own past to Sora, he had completely neglected to ask anything about Sora's in return. He had a feeling that Mr. Eraqus would not have approved of this self-centeredness, and he resolved to get to know his only friend a little better.

"When did you start living in Nomura, then?" he asked.

"Hm, I guess about a year and a half ago…or maybe it's closer to two," Sora answered with astonishment. "Wow, has it been that long already? Eeh time sure does fly!"

"What made you leave home?"

"Well, islands are nice n' all, don't get me wrong. But they're small. And kind of boring unless you _really_ like fishing. I got tired of fishing. I wanted to explore, and I'd already finished exploring the island. The Continent blew my freaking _mind_!" he laughed, eyes bright and smile wide. "It was so big and there was so much to do! And the roads just kept _going_. They don't do that on islands— they go around in loops, or else they just kinda stop. Well, I wandered here and there for a while before I eventually found Nomura and decided I liked it here. Then Cloud hired me and the rest is history!" He swung his legs a bit and their branch bounded slightly.

"What about your parents? They just let you leave like that? They didn't try to stop you?" Riku's uncle surely would never have let _him_ set off on his own into the unknown world, but he supposed not everyone was as strict as Sephiroth Jenova.

"Nah, they were pretty cool about it. They could tell I needed to roam for a bit. A lot of young people are like that on the island, and they usually come back after a while. And maybe I will too, someday, who knows. I guess they were a little nervous about me going off on my own, but I write them pretty often so they don't worry anymore. Besides, it was one less mouth to fish for, you know?"

"Don't you miss them?" asked Riku, frowning. With no parents of his own, he was surprised that someone would leave theirs behind so willingly.

Sora sensed what lay behind his question and his smile turned soft and a little apologetic. "Sometimes, yeah. But like I said, we write all the time. And I could always visit them if I really wanted, they're not really that far. Get on a train, then a boat or two and there they are. But for now I'm having a pretty good time doing my own thing."

Riku nodded thoughtfully and looked off toward the ocean where, somewhere out there, the people responsible for the crazy kid beside him went about their business, surrounded by picturesque palm trees and the smell of fish. He swung his legs beneath him a bit, too, and there was a rustle of leaves from the movement of the tree branch.

"Well, I'm glad you decided to stay in Nomura," he said quietly. He glanced at Sora from the side of his eye and gave him a small smile.

"Me too." Sora returned his smile tenfold, and his blue eyes sparkled with mirth.

The directness of Sora's gaze and the openness of his expression made Riku flush, and he decided the bark beneath his fingers needed a close examination. His heartbeat seemed a lot louder in his ears than it had any right to be, and he felt suddenly warm, though it was rather cool in the shade of their tree. He was not used to blushing so much, and he cursed his pale skin for betraying him so easily.

Riku wondered if perhaps it was Sora's pure heart that was affecting him so, making him feel off-balance and inexplicably nervous. His stomach gave an uneasy lurch at the thought.

Pure hearts were supposed to be the only cure for his curse, after all—the original curse, that is, the one he had suffered from since he was a small child. He had always dismissed it, as pure hearts were widely regarded as non-existent, something to live in stories and myths but not in the real world. Yet here was Sora beside him, pronounced pure of heart by a mythical ghost who shared his distinction, as real as the tree he sat on.

If he and Sora were to love each other unconditionally, his curse would be broken…

Riku shook his head to banish the errant thought. His long hair fell over his face, which was now a color a tomato would envy.

It was just the revelation that pure hearts really existed that made these wayward thoughts buzz around his head, that was all. Freedom from his curse was abruptly within the realm of possibility, and a hope he had long thought dead was emerging from the depths without his permission. He repressed this hope as much as he could.

Just because he was pure of heart did not mean Sora would break his curse. It meant only that pure hearts existed.

He gripped the tree branch hard enough to turn his finger tips white, frowning.

"Hey, you okay?" Sora's voice interrupted his troubled whirl of thoughts.

Riku looked up to find Sora watching him, his brows pulled together in concern.

"Yeah, fine," he said. His voice sounded husky in his ears so he cleared his throat. They were sitting rather close together on the branch, Riku noticed— Their hands were nearly touching.

"Okay, well I gotta pee," said Sora. "I'll be right back." He launched himself from their perch and landed with boyish grace on the grass below. Riku and the branch bobbed madly from the force of his departure and they were showered with a litter of dead leaves shaken loose.

"Oh," Riku blinked, jolted out of his frustrating introspection by the simplicity of Sora's overfull bladder. "Um, I don't know if there are any public toilets close by, actually. There's maybe a shop somewhere that will let you use theirs."

"Nah, it's okay. I'll just go behind this tree here," Sora replied easily. He walked off behind the tree as Riku gaped after him, scandalized.

"Wh—what! You can't just—just _urinate_ out in public! You have to use facilities! This—this is a public park!" Riku squawked.

"No one will see, it's not a big deal." Sora was behind the tree now, out of sight near the bushes at the base of the oak. Riku heard him unbuckling his belt.

"This is indecent!" he exclaimed, eyes wide with horror.

Sora snorted. "Whatever. Just don't look, ya pervert." The sound of an unzipping zipper, then the unmistakable trickle of liquid.

Riku swung around to stare resolutely at the view of the ocean, blushing furiously. " _I'm_ the pervert? _You're_ the one peeing in public!"

Sora guffawed and appeared from behind the tree after a minute, apparently finished with his business. Riku gave him an incredulous glare, which made Sora laugh even harder.

"I can't believe you just did that," Riku hissed.

"You mean you've never peed behind a tree before?"

"No! Of _course_ not!"

"You know, that really explains a lot about you," Sora nodded, so seriously and thoughtfully that Riku couldn't help but snort. Then Sora's expression spread into a mischievous grin.

"Race ya to that sign post over there!" And he took off sprinting.

"Wait!" Riku sputtered. "Which sign post!" He sprung from the tree and chased after his friend. "You cheated!" he cried.

Sora laughed maniacally, but it turned to a yelp when he saw Riku gaining on him.

* * *

 

In a small dark storage room on the second floor of the east wing of the Jenova mansion, Kairi and Namine sat crouched around a small vent on the wall near the floor, bickering in hissed whispers.

"Move over, I can't see anything."

"There's nothing to see, just a bunch of feet."

"A bunch of feet isn't _nothing_ , we can tell who's in there by their shoes."

"We can tell who's in there by _listening_. Which I can't do seeing as you keep talking in my ear."

"Alright, well you still need to move over because I can't hear anything."

"You can't hear anything because you keep talking."

"You keep talking too!"

"Shh!"

" _You_ shh!"

"Let's _both_ shh!"

"Fine!"

" _Fine_."

They traded glares, then shut their mouths in firmly pressed lines and concentrated on listening to the conversation occurring within the conference room on the other side of the wall. The small vent offered a thin, serrated view of several pairs of feet, mostly clad in dark boots or shined dress shoes.

"Sir, If we don't act now, we will be at a _distinct_ disadvantage," the owner of one pair of boots was saying. "Brahn's mage draft has more than doubled her mage forces, and if she attacks first, we may not get the chance to retaliate effectively. Our advantage has always been that our army was larger and better equipped, but that much more magic on her side tips the scales heavily in her favor."

"And so what do you suggest, Lieutenant Terra?" asked a deep silky voice belonging to pristine dress shoes.

"My Lord, I think we should attack first, and quickly, before Brahn is able to get comfortable. One swift major blow, before she expects it. Her mage force may be large, but they are still green. Attack before they are better trained, take as many out as possible, and take our military advantage back."

There was some murmuring among the room's occupants about this plan of action.

"Sir," spoke an irritated feminine voice from a different pair of boots, "a preemptive strike is _extremely_ unwise. Besides the fact that doing so would be a _direct_ violation of the Balamb Treaty, there's no way we'd be able to stage an attack that would surprise them enough to counteract their strength. They'd know if we were to move on them and they would be prepared for us. We'd be leading our forces to slaughter, no matter how swift we tried to be." Another smattering of murmuring broke out at this, but the woman raised her voice determinedly above them. "We should focus our efforts on defense. Our troops are strong, no matter the number of mages Brahn has. We'd be able to defend our borders easily if all our efforts were aimed at keeping her armies out. Let _her_ defy the Treaty first, and we will be justified in any subsequent retaliation."

"You want to let them bring the fight to Nomura? Excellent defense or not, the city itself would suffer incredible damages."

"All due respect, Mage General Aqua," said still another man. "We cannot simply hide behind our walls and let Brahn do whatever she pleases. Where is our pride? We must stand and fight! We must be on the offensive, show Alexandria we will not back down, that Nomura is not a city to be trifled with."

"So you'd rather send our troops to be destroyed in reckless battles in the hopes that it will make a dent in the enemy's army?" asked General Aqua heatedly. "That'll only serve to weaken our numbers until we can neither attack _nor_ defend. What good will Nomruan pride be when we are soundly defeated?"

"Not unless the attacks are well-planned," insisted Lieutenant Terra's boots. "We draw them out to strategic locations where we hold the higher ground, ambush them, scatter them, then retreat before they can adequately respond. If we can separate the Alexandrian army into smaller sections, cut off communication, and pick off troops little by little, we stand a much better chance."

"That sounds like a coward's way of fighting, Lieutenant," spat the voice who had also criticized General Aqua. "Do you take us for a band of brigands?"

"No, Lieutenant Xemnas," said another man from an out-of-sight corner, "I take us for an army that thinks before it acts, who uses what we can to our advantage." Though he had not spoken loudly, his words had cut across the rumble of argument in the room with the weight of authority. The room quieted as, presumably, everyone turned to look at him. "Does preserving the lives of Nomuran soldiers seem cowardly to you?"

"No, General," Lieutenant Xemnas said through obviously gritted teeth.

"General Leonhart, what are your thoughts?" asked the smooth voice in the dress shoes.

General Leonhart paused a moment before answering. "You know how I feel about this war, Lord Sephiroth," he said, a hint of impatience leaking through his calm. "It is pointless, there is no reason for it other than the fact that Nomura and Alexandria have been stepping on each other's toes. And Alexandria has not, as of yet, made any direct aggressions against us—"

"And what would you call their presence in Nibelheim! That's a _blatant_ violation of the Balamb Treaty—" someone cried out before they cut themselves off, perhaps at a sharp look from their General.

"I agree," the General spoke evenly, hardly needing to raise his voice. "Their move on Nibelheim is a technical violation of the Balamb Treaty. It is not, of course, a direct attack, and it is clearly a reaction against the attack Nomuran soldiers perpetrated without order on Mi'ihen Road. _However_ —" he stressed, cutting through the muttering arguments that had begun to erupt. "No matter how idiotic I personally believe this war to be, it is nevertheless time to act. Brahn is buying her time, waiting until her recently-recruited mage troops are more mature. If we wait for her to make the first move, we are lost."

"But if we attack first, are we not ourselves violating the Balamb treaty?" insisted General Aqua. "If we are in the wrong, then justice is not on our side. Other States may back Alexandria against us if they perceive us as the aggressors. Nibelheim is almost insignificant! A full-out assault is not! If Midgar and Besaid form an alliance with Alexandria, we stand no chance. Brahn _wants_ us to attack first, so that she seems the victim and gains the support of the region."

"They nearly _invaded_ Nibelheim, it's not like they were there for a wine-tasting tour!" snapped a gruff voice. "They broke the treaty first. The time for peace talks is over. If Midgar and Besaid choose to take sides, we are just as likely to gain their support."

"I agree, Commander Auron," said General Leonhart. "Peace is no longer a viable option, no matter how flimsy an excuse Nibelhein may seem. Either we attack first and risk enmity with other States, or we wait for her to attack once her armies are too strong for us to take on. Given the two, the former seems the more agreeable."

General Aqua huffed in anger, for it seemed Leonhart had been her last ally in the bid for peace.

"Lieutenant Terra and Mage General Aqua both have good points," Leonhart continued. "Protecting our city should be our primary goal, and we need to strengthen defenses. However, it is also important to draw fighting away from us, to minimize our losses. For that, Lieutenant Terra's suggestions to divide and ambush seem like a good start until our forces are more evenly matched." (Xemnas scoffed, but was ignored.) "We need to decide how to ensure Nomura is well-fortified in case of attack as efficiently as possible so that our offensive forces are not too depleted."

"Very good," said Lord Sephiroth. "I take it, then, that our declaration of war is now official?"

There was a more or less unified agreement throughout the room.

"Mage General Aqua?" Lord Sephiroth asked. There was a tense pause. "Are you in agreement?"

"Yes My Lord," she replied, more than a little bitter.

Back in the storage room, Kairi and Namine exchanged grim expressions.

"Looks like things are getting serious."


	13. The Vagabond's Charade

On a quiet corner of an unassuming street was a plain, sober building housing Lexicon & Sons Printing Company. The shop front was easily overlooked by pedestrians as it was so mundane, and unless you were specifically searching for it, your eyes would easily slide past the beige, half-timbered walls. But once examined, it was clear the company was prosperous with a kind of middle-class persistence, practical and ordinary on all accounts.

This was not exactly at the top of the list of destinations Roxas had expected Axel to lead him when he'd stalked off mysteriously toward a location deemed suitable for conversation. A dark alley, maybe, or a dilapidated building of some sort, but certainly not a respectable business. Yet Axel opened the door and entered without pause, and after a moment's surprise, Roxas slipped inside before the door could close on him.

The interior of the building was about what one might expect from the exterior— the counter, shelves, cabinets and flooring were all exceptionally normal.

Behind the counter leaned a thin young man in a printer's black apron over a collared shirt who was flipping with vague disinterest through a newspaper spread out in front of him. A limp mop of pale, somewhat gray-blue hair obscured half his face in a design intended to create a look of fashionable mystery, but the end product seemed to mostly get in his way. He looked up as Axel entered, blinked through a pair of spectacles perched at the tip of his long nose, and twisted his pinched features into an expression of utter irritation. This, too, seemed very normal; Roxas wasn't sure anyone could look at Axel without an expression like that.

"So he arrives at long last. They always said this glorious day would come, but alas, I had my doubts," he said in the driest deadpan Roxas had ever witnessed.

"Are you serious?" Axel cried. "I don't think I've  _ever_  seen a more perfect set up for ' _Look what the cat dragged in_ '!" He waved an arm dramatically towards Roxas sitting innocuously on the floor. "I'm disappointed, Zexy, I really am."

The man raised one visible eyebrow and peered over the counter at Roxas.

"A cat," he pronounced, unimpressed. " _Why_  have you brought a cat into my place of business?"

"As a matter of fact, I have some pressing matters to attend to with him. This fine feline and I have agreed to take a  _huge_  step toward personal growth by opening up and exchanging our secrets.  _So_  I'm going to give him a  _quick_  tour of our operation, both as an easier means of explaining myself and as an offering of good faith, to show that I am not lying.  _Thus_ , he will be more inclined to trust me, which will  _hopefully_  mean that he'll stop running away every time he sees me. Because I don't like that too much."

The clerk gave Axel a flat look. "Whatever. Just make sure it doesn't pee on anything." He returned to his newspaper as if to dismiss them.

"Clothes, carpets and curtains only, got it!" Axel chimed brightly as he crossed through the room towards a door on the other side.

"Go ahead, keep up the sass. And then see how much my rates increase," was the airy reply that followed them out.

"Anyway, that's Zexion," Axel chuckled as he closed the door behind Roxas. "He's a rather crucial part of our operation here, but don't let him hear that—he's already demanding a bigger cut than I'm willing to part with."

The back room they had entered was windowless but well-lit, musty with the smell of warm ink and paper. The majority of the space was taken up by cumbersome iron machines that whirred and cranked their gears without assistance to produce sheets of printed paper from large stamp-like mouths. Solemn wooden cases filled with lettering of varying sizes lined the walls, and the otherwise freshly-swept floor was littered with boxes overflowing with small booklets or reams of paper, enough that maneuvering through the room involved rather intricate footwork.

In one corner sat Demyx, looking comically lost amidst all the hubbub. His face was ink-smudged and wrought with confusion and there was a round, golden sort of sticker caught in his hair that he seemed unaware of. He hadn't heard them enter over the whir of the printing machines and so jumped when he found Axel in front of him, nearly toppling a pile of boxes beside him.

"Crimeny, Ax, give a guy some warning before you pop up, huh? I'm surrounded by crazy machines, I could've died!"

"They're printing machines. What are they gonna do, ink you to death?" From the look on Demyx's face, however, it seemed he didn't think this so implausible. "Anyway, you remember Roxas, right?"

"Sora's cat?" Demyx caught sight of Roxas sitting nervously beside a box. "Aw, look at him, all fuzzy. Did you steal him?"

"What? No. Do I look like a cat thief to you?"

"Kind of," Demyx shrugged.

"Okay, well, you're an idiot. And you have a sticker in your hair, what do I care what you think." Axel snatched the gold sticker from Demyx's hair and flicked it to the side.

"Well, I mean, you show up here with a cat, what am I supposed to think?"

"You know what, forget it. How's the work going?"

Demyx answered with a groan and slumped into his pile of boxes and papers. "Please free me," he moaned. " _Please_. I can't take it anymore, I'm not cut out for this kind of thing."

"Oh come on, it's not that hard. All you have to do is organize documents and replace the paper if a machine runs out. It's not like you have to set the type or anything."

"So why don't  _you_  do it, then?"

"I've been busy."

"Doing what? Stealing cats?"

"I've been making contacts, thank you very much."

"Are your contacts cats?"

"A wise man knows never to discount someone purely on their being a cat."

"More like a jerk isn't doing his share of work. What would Saix say about you slacking off?"

"Alright alright, waddya want?"

"A ten percent increase." But Axel scoffed, so Demyx amended, "Or you help sort papers. Plus I need a water break. Dehydration is no joke, my friend."

"Yeah yeah," Axel granted. He sat down beside Demyx with an air of graceful resignation. "Go hydrate or whatever." Which was all the permission needed for Demyx to spring up and out the door as quick as a sneeze.

"So this is your operation?" Roxas snorted once they were alone. "What is this, some sort of illegal stationary heist?" He wandered through the maze of paper stacks and searched idly for an empty box to jump into. All the boxes, he noticed, contained passport booklets or birth certificates, the latter of which were all stamped with an official gold seal identical to the sticker that had found a home in Demyx's hair. A half-empty box was located and Roxas settled comfortably on what seemed to be someone's dental records.

"Wh—hey, get out of there, I'm trying to do business," Axel snapped. "How's that going to look with cat prints all over it, huh? Now why don't you turn into something with thumbs and help me out here?"

"Tch, as if. I'm not your lackey, fold your own envelopes. Besides, I want the tour of operations you promised. The offering of good faith and personal growth and all that." He remained in the box.

"Ah yes. Well, it's a small room, so I can give the tour from here." Axel took up some papers and dutifully resumed the sorting task Demyx had abandoned.

"So these papers we are dealing with are identification documents," he began. "You got your birth certificates, medical records, and, most importantly, the passports." Axel gestured to the various stacks of paper and boxes he described.

"We print the papers on the giant machines, which are owned by Zexion, who you met in the front room. He's more or less in charge of operating the machines and binding the passport booklets. He also works a teensy bit of magic to make the papers more convincing to certain people who might look a little too close. A bit of an illusion where we need one, you know? Then, when the papers are finished, Demyx and I take them to Alexandria and sell them to certain clients of ours who are very interested in having these documents. Simple as that."

"You're selling false identity papers to people in Alexandria?"

"Pretty much."

Roxas was silent for a moment.

"Surprised? Impressed?" Axel asked.

"Kind of disappointed," he admitted.

"What! Disappointed? Come on now, that's a bit harsh. I may have said 'simple as that' but this is actually a rather complicated and detailed procedure," Axel huffed.

"I dunno. I guess I expected…more. Or something. You know, more exciting. Not some stamp and fold delivery system."

"Sheesh, c'mon, kid. Did you think I was some kind of criminal kingpin? I suppose I should be flattered that your expectations were so high. Or maybe you've just been reading too many dime-store novels. This may not be explosions and knife fights, but it ain't exactly small time, either, alright? These things are in high demand right now." He shook a birth certificate for emphasis, which wobbled in indignation. "What you see here is the production end of a rather extensive network of providing papers to people who need them.  _Stamp and fold delivery system_ —good grief!"

"Okay, okay. Didn't mean to offend you or anything."

Axel accepted the apology with a gracious nod.

"So, wait—you're from Alexandria?"

"Did I not mention that?"

"First I've heard of it."

"It's a need-to-know basis."

Roxas rolled his eyes and decided to let that one slide. "Well I guess the next question is why."

"Why what?"

"Why make fake documents and sell them in Alexandria?"

"Ah, well, I don't know if you've noticed, kid, but there's a bit of a war a-brewin' between our two lovely little cities." Axel squinted at nothing in particular and leaned back in his seat. "And a few weeks ago, a new law was made drafting all eligible mages into the Alexandrian army. Non-magical civilians are safe from the draft for now, but who knows how long that'll last. Have you heard about that? You keep up with the news at all? No? Well it's kinda big back where I'm from.

"Now, it might shock you, but there are people who would rather  _not_  die in some war. And when they decide they would like to work their way out of being drafted, these people contact someone like me, and we sell them a passport to make it look like they are  _not_ , in fact, mage citizens of Alex who are eligible for the draft. Then they pack up and go on their merry way to live somewhere else, army-free. Really, what I'm doing is a fantastic public service. Hundreds will benefit from my humble work."

"Your humble work of forging fraudulent identity documents," Roxas clarified.

"Precisely."

Roxas snorted.

"What, you're still not impressed? I'm saving lives here. Practically a saint."

"You're just a petty criminal printing papers," Roxas said, rolling his eyes. "But wait, no—you're not even printing them. That Zexion guy is. What exactly is your job here?" He gave a toothy grin, smug as only a cat settled comfortably in a box can be.

"Geez, now you finally start talking, you think you can just run your mouth, huh? Maybe I liked the silent treatment better. Smarmy little butt-licker."

Roxas flicked the tip of his tail, amused.

"I'll have you know," Axel sniffed, "that I am a liaison. A contact person, a deal-maker. There are several groups involved in this production, and I make sure everyone holds up their end. If there is some sort of hiccup, I inform the right people and get it fixed. I'm a very important link between two very influential organizations."

Roxas rolled to his side and stretched out in the box, wriggling into a comfortable position. "Oh, I see. Now I'm  _very_  impressed," he yawned.

Axel gave a harrumph and sorted through the stack of papers on his lap primly, pretending to be offended.

"So why does a fancy liaison have to go around as a traveling performer?" Roxas asked after a minute. He had propped his head on the side of the box, chin resting on the thin cardboard edge, to blink up at Axel.

"Right, the  _'Fire and Water Magical Music Show'_ ," Axel smiled. "Well, draft as it is, Alexandria isn't letting mages like us just leave—hence the whole fake identity papers thing, obviously. But we don't have our own passports yet, things are just getting started here, so instead of documents, Dem and I adopted the persona of vagabond performers who do tricks and sing songs and are definitely  _not_  from Alexandria. Made ourselves as dirty and annoying as possible so that when it was time for us to take the trip, the officials at the gates were glad to be rid of us, didn't doubt us for a minute." He chuckled at the memory and propped his feet up on a box. He was no longer as focused on sorting and it was lucky if even a few birth certificates made it to where they were supposed to go.

"Anyway, Demyx thought of the disguise, he's pretty into that kind of thing—shows, music, travel, yadda yadda. Sometimes he seems to forget performing isn't actually our primary goal. He's not bad, either—but don't let him hear that, his head's already bigger than it needs to be."

"But you did shows in Nomura. You're not trying to fool Alexandrian emigration anymore, why keep up the act?"

"It's a good cover," he shrugged. "Brahn may be a bit of a cow, but her daughter Garnet is sharp as a dagger. I wouldn't put it past her to have spies here gathering info, I'm not ruling anything out. They may not be searching for us specifically, but if someone stumbled onto something they shouldn't, stories that don't quite fit, our whole operation'd be blown."

Roxas gnawed the box edge, thinking of Namine's work in the Jenova mansion. He wondered what she would do if faced with someone like Axel.

"Anyway," he continued, "the vagabond cover also helps protect us against backlash from Nomuran citizens who may not be too happy about a couple of Alexandrians in their midst, draft-dodger schemes or no." He examined the cover of a passport thoughtfully and scratched his head.

"When Dem and I first set out, I was more worried about keeping cover for the first reason. But now I'm here, I'm keeping it up for the second. Folks are getting a bit nutty out there, the propaganda machine is well-underway. It's not just the army and the nobles that people here hate, it's everyone from Alexandria. Even regular folks. Now, I don't know if people would really act on their nationalistic fervor and do the things I hear them joke about. But still, I'd like to avoid being the target of that lynch mob if possible. Honestly, the way things are going, anyone not born and raised in the city better make sure their 'Hu-rah hu-rah Nomura' is nice and loud before the crowds turn on them, too."

"Sora's not from Nomura," Roxas frowned. "Neither am I."

"No?"

"Or Cloud. Or even Tifa."

"Who?"

"Friends of ours."

"Well, I hope they know every word to the city's anthem."

Roxas studied the chewed edge of his box silently, cat brows furrowed. Axel grimaced at the sight of him.

"Hey, c'mon, kid. I didn't mean to scare ya. I'm sure your friends'll be fine. And you, too. It's not like immigration really applies to cats."

"No, it's not that. Now I'm just wondering…"

"What?"

Roxas looked up. "Why did you base your production in the place your city is about to go to war with? It seems unnecessarily dangerous. Wouldn't it be easier to do all this in Alexandria?"

Axel raised a thin eyebrow. "What, you think just because our governments are going to war, all past business connections are suddenly null?" He shook his head with a patronizing kind of smile. "C'mon, use the brain between those giant ears. Nomura and Alex have always been close economically, a scuffle between hoity-toity nobles isn't gonna change that so fast and propaganda isn't strong enough to make people turn down good money. Even legitimate businesses are keeping their contacts until they're forced into an embargo.

"Anyway, for our organization, it just made the most sense. Production is a little more difficult in Alexandria—they're on the lookout for this kind of thing, and they're cracking down hard. Besides, Zexion is here, and let me tell you, there aren't too many mage printers specializing in illusory magic. We've got a lot of other valuable connections in this city, too, and the boss back home wants a healthy relationship with the major underground organizations in Nomura. They'll help us out where we need it with this project, and we'll provide assistance to them when the time comes. We've even been talking to some people from Midgar, in case things here start getting too risky."

Roxas twitched his whiskers in a smile. "I'm learning so much about illegal economics."

"I should charge for classes. The main thesis: Everything is Connected!"

"So how big exactly is this organization you're working for? Some kind of Alexandrian mafia, or what?"

Axel tilted his head thoughtfully. "Mm, hard to say. The network is extensive, but only the guy at the top knows how big it really is. That's to keep things safe, so if one area gets busted, other parts are still in operation, it doesn't bring everyone down. Then the guys still in the clear can help those in trouble. You know, finagle some lighter jail time, stuff like that, so they keep their mouths shut. That's number one, of course—making sure people keep quiet about things when questioned. But the head honcho has fingers in a variety of pots, so to speak. Very influential."

"Interesting that you speak of people keeping their mouths shut," said a voice suddenly in the room, "when you yourself are giving away information so blithely."

Axel and Roxas flinched, whirling around so fast they nearly got whiplash, to find Zexion watching them, face blank and arms crossed, in a spot that had been vacant a blink ago.

Axel paused, considering the situation. "Ah, Z-man. Didn't, uh, didn't see ya there," he said lightly. He schooled his features into an expression of mild surprise over vacant innocence.

"It's rather dangerous, you know, discussing business with outsiders." Zexion's pale eyes were cold as they bore into him. "One might consider this a rather blatant violation of  _omerta_. Don't you think?"

"It  _would_  be, obviously, if that's what was happening," he hedged delicately. "If I had actually said anything of value, or if he was an outsider. But he's not—I mean, this isn't—"

"Roxas, was it? I think that's what I heard you say to Demyx." Zexion had turned his drilling look to the cat. "Who are you, exactly? Who do you work for?"

Roxas was silent, hunched now with his feet beneath him, ears flat and fur on end. Several escape routes materialized in his mind, though all hinged on reaching the only door to the workroom without getting caught. His tail curled between his legs in panic.

"Why so quiet? You were speaking just fine earlier," said Zexion. "What's the matter,  _cat got your tongue_?" He raised a self-satisfied eyebrow to Axel. "How's that for a good set-up, hm?" A smirk was just barely discernible on his face.

Axel granted him a nod of acknowledgment as his heart rate normalized; If Zexion was in a good enough mood to make a joke, then the situation wasn't dire—but also he had to admit it  _was_  a good set-up. "Alright, but it's not what you think, okay?"

"Not what I think? And what exactly  _is_  it that I think?"

"Ah, well…you know, I'm not entirely sure. Why don't you tell us what you think is happening here." The best kind of lie, of course, was one the person being lied to had come up with on their own. But still, Axel was apprehensive. Zexion could be difficult to maneuver around.

Zexion narrowed his eyes at the two of them. "It seems to me that you found a shape-shifter somewhere in town and recruited him for our cause. Cats can sneak into places with an obvious kind of invisibility where other magic might be discovered. He can spy or run messages or scout when needed. I assume you have already run him past Saix, or else you wouldn't dare show him the workroom."

He leaned in for a closer examination of Roxas, who remained as soundless and still as stone. "And he can keep his mouth shut," Zexion determined after a moment. He gave Roxas a nod, satisfied with his conclusion. "Good. Saix must have liked that. And you snuck him in here…I'm not sure why. To test him? To annoy me? I don't care. I'll admit, I fell for the trick at first. But nothing happens in my shop that I am not aware of. So  _don't_  try to make a fool of me again. Understand?"

Axel paused to think over Zexion's reasoning and wondered why these things hadn't occurred to him first. It sounded more reasonable than what was actually happening, anyway. His deal of personal transparency with the shape-shifter boy he barely knew wasn't easily explainable, especially to someone like Zexion, who had probably never thought to help anyone in his life.

Axel caught Roxas' eye and offered a grin.

"Nothing gets past you, Master of Illusions!" he announced cheerfully. "You got it exactly. I met Roxas the other day, and it turns out he's very excited about our work here and would like to be of use. A perfect alley cat on our side to keep an eye out where authorities would least expect it. Saix thought it was brilliant."

"Mm, I'm sure." Now that their deceit appeared to be revealed, Zexion seemed bored of the conversation. Instead, he inspected his machines, watching the production of documents, parchment inked and pushed along one by one, with a calculating interest.

"Nearly out of paper here." He retrieved a stack of blank parchment and went about replacing it in a machine that had run low. "I thought I told you to watch out for the paper level."

"That's Demyx's job," Axel shrugged.

"Yes, but you sent him on his merry way, did you not? Thus the task has fallen to you."

"Well, looks like you've got it covered. Besides, you know how clumsy I am with machines. Something always ends up on fire, I can't figure it out. Wouldn't want to damage something so important as these  _priceless_  machines." Axel gave a nearly-guileless smile, which Zexion countered with an unamused scowl.

Then the workroom door ripped open with unnecessary clamor, and in burst Demyx, waving a newspaper above his head and grinning like a fool. He tripped over nothing, but caught himself in the same fluid movement, and his grin remained intact throughout.

"Just got the evening news!" he yipped. "It's official!"

"Alright, I'll bite," Axel snorted. "What's official?"

Demyx's grin widened impossibly as he unfurled the bundled paper. The front page it revealed contained a grainy photograph of Sephiroth Jenova, flanked by a line of impressive military officers. Above this, in large, bold letters, read the headline:

 

**Jenova Declares War on Alexandria!**

 

Axel let out an impressed whistle.

"Quicker than I expected," said Zexion.

"Boys," announced Demyx with a flourish, "business is about to be booming!"

* * *

 

When the sun began to melt in the sky and Crescent Park failed to provide any universe tingles or coincidental tips on how to defeat Xehanort, Sora and Riku decided it was time to go.

They dropped by Cid's again and found to their luck that Tidus had finished sharpening  _Oathkeeper_.

"I put it on rush, since it's for a friend," Tidus said with a handsome grin. "Plus I didn't have much of anything better to do. Business has been kinda slow last couple days."

Riku handed over a rather exorbitant price for it with only a slight grimace. He figured he deserved it after acting so pompous earlier. And anyway, Tidus had done a fairly remarkable job;  _Oathkeeper_  was gleaming with silver reflection and its edges were fine and sharp.

Tidus waved away their compliments with only a little false modesty. "No problem at all. It looked bad at first, but underneath all the rust, the blade's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Barely needed to be sharpened at all, matter o' fact." That didn't stop him from taking the munny, of course.

Errand complete, the two set off once more. Sora insisted that Riku continue directing them, and he obliged without fuss. They moved vaguely east to avoid the setting sun glaring in their eyes, and Riku had gained enough confidence in his friend's biking skills to goad him into wild commands, some of which resulted in fairly impressive stunts, especially considering the added weight of an extra passenger. They dodged groups of people gathered on the streets who were clearly excited about something in the newspapers they gestures with, but Sora and Riku paid them no mind as they whirled about town. Crows squawked from perches or beat their wings noisily above them, but this, too, was unworthy of their attention, so distracted were they by the joy of adrenaline.

When his arbitrary directions led past a restaurant, their stomachs harmonized in complaint, so they stopped for dinner. Riku had a new chance to witness Sora's atrocious table manners, but though he rolled his eyes at the mess, he hid a smile behind his glass as he drank.

Sora regaled Riku with tales of island living as they ate, of sailing and fishing and exploring caves. He told about the weeks on the road before he'd settled in Nomura, and about how he'd convinced Cloud to hire him—which had been much easier than anticipated. He talked about his favorite time of day, the best spaghetti he'd ever had, the funniest things he'd ever seen. He talked about working at the delivery shop, proper bicycle maintenance, and what he would do if he ever had a long vacation. Sora talked a lot (mostly with food in his mouth) but he never babbled, and Riku was beginning to understand the link between the bizarre things Sora said and the real things he meant by them. By dessert, his simple approach to vocabulary seemed more natural and efficient than any grammar or etiquette lesson Riku had been forced to endure.

Before they knew it, night had descended. The moon was low and waning, an oblong shape of light in the sky lurking behind tall buildings, but it was bright enough to outshine all but the most insistent stars. The evening was cool and peaceful as they rode through the city, slower than Sora's usual pace on account of their full stomachs. It was getting late, but neither were ready to go home, and besides, they had yet to discover anything useful. The goal of the day was to figure out how to save the city from destruction, after all, and though their time together so far had been enjoyable, it hadn't been productive.

"I'm a bad luck charm," Riku sighed eventually. "I'm sure you would have solved all of life's mysteries by now if I hadn't been here. Whimsical adventures don't suit me."

"Nonsense. Your directions have been very useful."

"And what exactly have we learned, then? Besides the fact that you can't chew with your mouth closed."

"Maybe we discovered something we won't realize is useful until the proper time. It'll be a surprise right at the crucial moment, and we'll be like 'wow, I'm so glad I went on that bike ride and learned that random thing!' and it'll save the day."

Riku let out a laugh. "I hope so."

It wasn't much longer before their excursion finally produced something of note. But it wasn't something they found so much as something that found  _them_ —and they did not particularly relish in the discovery.

A streetlight they passed under flickered slightly, but only Riku noticed. He turned and saw it die out behind them. The next one they passed did the same, and the third died just as they got to it. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled and a sick feeling of dread spread through his veins. This was familiar. And it wasn't good.

"Sora," he choked.

"Mm?"

"We—we need to go. Find somewhere with light, somewhere safe. Like, now."

Sora turned his head to regard him from the side of his eye. "Shadow monsters?" His voice was suddenly low and serious.

"Coming soon. I can feel them."

Sora gave a sharp nod and turned forward. He pedaled faster, calf muscles flexing as he drove them and knuckles white as he gripped the handlebars. They aimed toward the southern district, the place of their last victory against the monsters, because neither could think of a better alternative. But they were far north and had a long way to go.

Streetlights were sputtering out all around them now, lights in windows seemed to dim, and the moon had apparently abandoned them. Darkness loomed, a growing mouth of black like a rising tide, seeping out from holes and nooks where shadows lived during daylight. There was movement around them as they flew through the streets, though they tried not to focus on it. Shadows reached out like inky fingers sliding along the cobblestone, and from these tendrils emerged the monsters. Silent save for a quiet rustle on stone, they rose out of shadowed pools into existence, pausing for a moment as if to revel in their being before setting sights on their target.

Riku struggled for air. He could feel their presence like a sharp tug on his lungs, a nearly physical grip that had his head spinning. When he regained himself, he saw the monsters running beside the speeding bicycle, galloping seamlessly on feet and knuckles of over-large clawed hands like a grotesque pack of wolves. They seemed bigger than before, the size of large dogs now. Their eyes, though, were as they always had been—orbs of yellow-orange glowed in a sinister mockery of true light.

"They're gaining!" Riku yelped. They were nearly abreast of his knees and siding in on the bike at either end.

"Okay," panted Sora. He upped the pace as best he could and they began to outstrip their pursuers in excruciating increments.

Riku's heart lifted as he watched the monsters fall behind, but the smile died on his lips as he turned fully in his seat to see the terrifying hoard of shadow beasts rushing in pursuit.

"Shit!" Sora swerved the bike in a hairpin turn, tires squealing, and Riku clung to keep from being thrown. Hulking shadow monsters had dropped down off some ledge to land in their path. Sora veered off for a clear direction.

But the turn had slowed them for a just split second, and that was enough for the monsters on their heel. A beast launched itself in a canine leap at Riku and caught his shoulder. Riku toppled from the back of the bicycle with a painful crash.

In the time it took for Sora to skid to a spinning halt and cry out his name, the monsters were already on him, flooding over like a crash of waves full of dark claws and teeth. Riku couldn't find enough air in his lungs to scream.

He raised his hands, flicked his fingers in a quick pattern that was second nature to him now, and called forth the frost from inside him, even as shadow teeth sunk into his shoulder and legs. A blanket of ice crackled and grew over him in a cold shield, water accumulated from the humidity in the air and the moisture of his breath and solidified at his command. The monsters were repelled, teeth and claws forced off by the layer of ice. He curled into himself on the pavement and thickened the shield in a jagged encasement. It would not last forever—eventually, he knew, the shadows would find their way through, no matter how solid he made it. Though slowed and diffused, darkness could travel through ice. Already, the shadow creatures were pounding and scratching furiously against the thickening barrier.

Sora threw himself from his bike to rush toward his friend. He had no plan, no idea what he would do when he reached the mass of monsters that had swarmed over Riku. All he knew was that he had to save him.

There was a tingle at his hand, a fuzzy feeling as if it had fallen asleep, then Sora felt a weight in his fist.  _Oathkeeper_  had appeared, summoned somehow out of the satchel and cloth wrapping it had been kept in. It glowed with a pulsing light as if it were excited, eager, even. Sora took this appearance in stride and his sprint did not falter, for he was never one to over-complicate things by thinking them through.

Sora slashed with the dagger one-handed at the first beast to turn its attention him, catching it full in the face as it lunged to attack. The shining blade ripped through fleshless essence and the beast screeched in surprise, a sound like scraping metal. It staggered back, clutching at its torn face and stumbling on ungainly hind legs, and Sora dove forward to slice through the exposed chest. The creature screeched again as it fell to the ground. Its wounds emitted a pale smoke, and the monster began to disintegrate before his eyes like a burning scrap of newspaper. In a moment, it had faded into a faint wisp and vanished, leaving not even ashes behind.

Sora had no time to marvel over this discovery, for more shadow monsters had replaced the one he'd obliterated. But  _Oathkeeper_  was firm in his grip, bright as a lantern, and he knew he had discovered something useful.

He hacked and slashed his way through more creatures, found them to be as easily disposed of as the first, and forced his way toward Riku's ice barrier. He might have wondered at his own violence, his instinctive actions to harm and destroy—he who never killed spiders in his apartment, who used to toss fish he caught back into the sea when his father wasn't looking, who scolded Roxas for pouncing on rodents. But the only thing on his mind now was Riku's safety.

The ice shield was beginning to fail. Shadow claws had slipped through, trying to force a break, and Riku knew he didn't have a moment to lose. He  _pushed_ and the ice tented into a sharp cone to give him more space. He picked himself up enough to crouch, placed a palm flat on the cobblestone, and let out a deep, firm breath. He visualized the change of matter, felt the molecules under his control, and with a surge, he spread ice beneath him. It crystallized out from his hand to form a perfect hexagon around him, then lurched upward in a rising pillar which thrust him up out of the mass of monsters. The ice of his shelter melted to join his growing pillar, and soon he loomed ten, twenty, thirty feet above the dark mob below. Monsters struggled and scraped at the base of his column.

Sora was aglow with the light of the blade in his hand, flashing as he fought. To Riku's amazement, he saw Sora was succeeding. Nothing Riku had used had ever been effective against the shadows, any weapon passed through them unharmed and they could not be stopped by physical barriers. But now!

Riku grinned. He supposed the dagger wasn't so useless after all.

However, it was clear Sora was overwhelmed. The dagger was working, but there were too many for him to handle alone. From his height, Riku saw a group of monsters rushing toward Sora's unprotected back.

"Behind you!" he shouted. On his platform, Riku swiped one foot out to the side, causing a sliver of ice to detach from the platform and became vapor. He flicked the water vapor with a hard twist of his wrist and sent it flying down toward Sora. When it reached him, Riku solidified it, tweaking that fine distinction between states of matter, adding just the right amount of pressure to turn gas to solid. It struck the ground behind Sora in a broad shield and halted the shadow monsters just as they had been about to attack his exposed back. Sora turned at the commotion, and  _Oathkeeper's_  light was caught by the smooth, opaque sheen of ice. The light reflected, refracted, dispersed, and suddenly the monsters closest to him were disintegrating into a pale mist, pierced by the light of the blade shining off the ice.

"Woa," said Sora, impressed. The hoard of shadows hesitated at this new development, lingering just out of the light's reach. Sora found Riku and grinned. "Hey, teamwork!" he called up to him.

"Holy shit," agreed Riku. "Ice is reflective! We might make it out alive!"

"Quick, make more ice walls!"

"No wait, snow has a higher albedo than regular ice. We need snow." So Riku concentrated, picked out the water molecules around them, and with a calculated movement, adjusted temperature and pressure to create a flurry of pure white snowflakes. The snow landed in an even layer on the street and piled up in places near Sora, who was watching the magic display with wonder, as if he hadn't been fighting for his life a moment ago. But  _Oathkeeper_  was doing the work for him and had already begun to reflect off the surrounding snow. The shadows standing on the lit snow jumped from foot to foot as if it were hot sand, and as the snow began to thicken, they scrambled back. Those not fast enough dissolved into mist.

"That is  _so cool!_ " Sora marveled.

"This is not the time to be impressed!" Riku shouted back. "We have to get out of here."

Because the monsters had figured out how to get to the top of Riku's column. They were climbing on top of each other in a huge pile propped against the ice and were coming up fast. Riku twisted a foot and  _kicked_ , and the ice from his pillar was reforming into a chute to the ground. He slid down even as the ice was still creating the path, desperate to escape the monsters behind him. He stumbled as he reached the street again, and with a flex of his fingers, his ice slide and what remained of the column turned into a whirlwind of snow which followed after him as he sprinted toward Sora. The creatures who had been leaning against the pillar tumbled soundlessly to the ground.

"Get the bike!"

They scrambled back to the bicycle and Riku pushed the snow ahead of them into thick banks on either side of their path. Sora gripped the hilt of the dagger between his teeth like some kind of pirate so his hands would be free for the handlebars. Riku clutched him tight, and they were off. The glow of the dagger's light off the snow, hampered only slightly by its placement in Sora's mouth, provided them a protective bauble as they sped through snow-lined streets.

But the shadow monsters were not far behind.

* * *

 

Roxas heard something familiar, and his ears perked up. In a short moment, he recognized the sound and could pinpoint its general location and the trajectory of its fast movement. He heard something faint accompanying this familiar sound, and he stood, squinting into the evening, ears swiveling.

"What?" asked Axel, nettled at the interruption. They were sitting on a balcony above the print shop, overlooking a dingy back alley, and he'd been in the middle of telling a frankly hilarious story about an exploit involving a stolen gallon of milk. He'd been about to reach the best part.

"I heard Sora. Something's wrong," was all Roxas offered before he jumped through the balcony railing, landing first with a thump on a dumpster below, then the ground, and darted out of the alley as silent as a breath.

"What the hell!" Axel complained, confused and abandoned. "Who  _does_  that?"

But there was no one nearby to participate in his indignation. He stood, worked out a kink from his back, and tapped the ash from the tip of his cigarette. Then he hoisted himself slowly over the edge of the balcony and let himself hang until he was sure the dumpster wasn't too far below. He made it to the ground after a moment of awkward flailing—he was grateful no one had witnessed—and strolled out of the alley after the cat, grumbling all the way.

* * *

 

Sora and Riku raced through the streets, but their movement was awkward. Riku was struggling to keep the snow coming fast enough to constantly surround them as Sora rode, and his arms were getting tired from the effort. Sora's jaw ached from the uncomfortable shape of the dagger's handle in his mouth. More importantly, the whirling snowflakes were impeding visibility, and he squinted as the ice stung his eyes.

And the shadows were not letting up. They were maintaining distance, because any that dared come too close to the glowing snow was instantly vaporized, but they were still there, just on the edge of light. Waiting patiently for their opportunity to strike.

They were now somewhere in the eastern district, still moving south, but Riku wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to keep this up. The monsters had clearly become faster and stronger since their last encounter. Even if they were to reach the southern district, they might not be able to shake off their pursuers in the winding southern streets like they had before.

"Maybe we should find a building," said Riku. "Fill it with snow and wait for daylight."

Sora made a noise around the dagger which sounded like agreement. He was getting tired.

Which must have been why he didn't notice the snow-covered curb before it was too late. The front tire slammed into the raised pavement hard and the bike's occupants flew forward. Sora tumbled over the handlebars and Riku crashed to the side.  _Oathkeeper_  fell from Sora's clenched teeth with a pathetic clatter on the pavement and it's light immediately died out. The shadows descended eagerly.

Sora scrambled to grab hold of the dagger, ignoring a painfully scraped knee and bleeding forearm. He was shocked; He had never crashed his bicycle before.

The light flickered back to life in his grip just as a beast was about to attack. Instead, Sora sliced its throat and it vanished.

Riku had managed to land in a tuft of snow, though it did not provide as much cushion as might be desired. He was on his feet in a moment and trying not to wince at all the places that hurt. When  _Oathkeeper's_  light revived, he pushed up the snow into tall walls around them, angled for optimal reflective capabilities. He was panting hard.

"Sora!" came a cry from down the street.

Sora looked over to find Roxas bounding towards them. His cat eyes were flat round gleams of light in the night, but as he drew closer, he grew and straightened on two legs. His human eyes were instead wide with worry.

"Roxas! Watch out!" Sora called out. But Roxas had already come to a halt outside the mass of shadow monsters and didn't need to be told to be careful. Sora didn't seem to wonder how Roxas had found them.

He wasn't the only new arrival, though. 

"What the hell is this?" Axel said, panting to catch his breath. Though it was unclear if Axel was referring to the shadow monsters or to Roxas, for he was gaping unabashedly at his human shape.

"Shadow monsters," answered Roxas, regardless. "Remember that time with the Nothing Man? These are even worse."

"Shit," was all he could say. He raked a hand through his hair as he considered the drastic scene before him.

"The dagger can destroy them and the snow reflects the light, but there are too many!" called Sora. "We need more light!"

"Light, huh? Well I can help with that," Axel grinned. With a flourish, he produced a palm-full of flame in each hand, which he shot forward to create huge plumes of fire. The street exploded in vivid light. Monsters shrunk back and Axel and Roxas rushed to join Sora and Riku.

"Hey, I'm Axel, by the way," he said somewhat casually to Riku, who was looking at him in puzzlement.

"Uh, Riku."

"Cursed kid, right? I've heard about you."

Riku wasn't sure how to respond, so he opted not to.

Axel smirked at him. Then he snapped and thrust out a hand in a violent gesture, causing the billowing flame to encircled them. Bright, hot light flickered over their faces and flooded the area.

Riku squinted from the intensity, then blinked in dismay when he noticed his snow had melted into quickly-evaporating pools. But there wasn't much to do about it. Light was what they needed, and fire was certainly better at producing it than snow. What was important was that the shadows were gone.

Except…

"There, nothin' to it," grinned Axel. He dusted off his hands with smug finality. "No more whatever the hell that was. You're all very welcome."

"Um, Axel," Sora said faintly. He was gaping open-mouthed over the top of the wall of fire and everyone turned to see what had caught his attention. An array of colossal shadow monsters now towered over them and their protective ring of fire. The many had turned into a few, but those few were grotesque behemoths, manifestations of nightmares and fear.

Four hearts skipped a beat in the same moment.

A giant hand swiped down at them and all scatted out of its reach. The firelight caused the claws to sizzle and smoke, but it wasn't enough to impede it entirely.

"I thought light was supposed to stop them!" screeched Roxas.

Riku looked around at the harsh light of the fire shifting around them.

"It's the fire!" he realized. "It's creating light, but it's casting shadows, too! Look!" The fire had given them all an assortment of jittery shadows, twisting and flickering with the movement of the vivid firelight. "The monsters are growing from the shadows caused by the fire."

"Well fuck," said Axel. "Talk about contrast. The brighter the light the bigger the shadow, huh?"

"What do we do?"

"We need to have the light come from above!" said Roxas. All turned to him in confusion.

"How will that help?"

The massive claw made another grab at them and they dodged again. Riku tried to form an ice shield over him, but it melted instantly and evaporated from the heat.

"It's all about the angle!" said Roxas after he'd recovered himself. "The way the light hits things makes a shadow behind it, like the fire is doing now. But if the light is coming from above, it hits you at the narrowest point and your shadow is small underneath you. That's what we need! Then the shadow monsters will be weaker!"

"Sounds logical," said Axel

Riku shrugged. "Alright, let's do it."

"How?"

"We, uh…find a way to get up high." Riku was looking up at the surrounding buildings. "I could create more ice pillars to raise us, but it'll be difficult with this heat."

"If I snuff out the fire, those things'll come at us."

"Is it possible to change the temperature? Just enough so that the ice doesn't melt?"

"I'll do my best." The fire dwindled slightly and the heat diminished.

Riku concentrated on gathering enough water molecules from around them before the monsters forced their way closer. With a monumental effort, he cooled and stressed the vapor enough to make it solid. Pillars rose up beneath them, just as the shadow giants broke through the diminished walls of fire. Sora and Axel wobbled with the sudden movement and nearly fell as they shot up out of the monster's reach. Roxas' balance was, as always, infinite. Riku lifted them perhaps fifty feet above the sidewalk. They were level with upper windows of some of the tall buildings and looking down at the shadow monsters.

Axel whistled. "Good thing I'm not afraid of heights," he said to no one in particular.

"Now what?" asked Sora.

"Now we reflect the light back down."

Axel let handfuls of fire blaze above him as bright as he could manage without melting the stand beneath him, which was tricky work. He tossed flames in the air to increase their range, and the ice pillars shimmered from the glow. Riku created a sort of roof overhang of snow for Sora's platform, and  _Oathkeeper's_ steady shine reflected brilliantly. Sora focused all his willpower into making the dagger's light brighter, channeling his energy and the pureness of his heart into the blade's magic.  _Oathkeeper_  obliged, and Sora's resulting radiance was blinding.

Their light reached the ground with such a direct force that the shadows had nothing to feed their growth. They hissed and smoked and  sizzled until they were no more than small globs on the cobblestone. The remaining monsters scurried away, weak and defeated.

"We did it!" Sora cheered. When the monsters fled, he let  _Oathkeeper's_  light dim to its original glow.

Riku laughed with thrilled astonishment as he blinked away the spots in his vision Sora's light had caused.

"I can't believe that worked," said Roxas, though it had been his idea.

The pillars melted gradually to bring them safely to the ground.

"You're hurt." Sora was beside Riku the minute the ice had vanished from under his feet. He examined Riku's bloody shoulder where a monster had got him, a scrape on his chin, they way he favored one leg when standing.

"You're the one who's hurt," Riku countered, nodding to Sora's injured forearm embedded with pavement, the nasty scrape at his knee, the cut in his lip from falling off the bike with the dagger in his mouth.

"It's nothing. My own fault for crashing the bike." Sora gave Riku a bandanna from his pocket, and Riku dabbed at his chin with a pained hiss.

Then Sora turned to beam at Roxas, a force nearly as bright at the weapon in his hand. "And you! Look at you being a person again!  _And_  your idea saved us!"

Roxas blushed and examined his dirty bare feet. "Anyone could have thought of it…" he mumbled.

"Alright, well I don't know about you all," interrupted Axel, "but that was by far the weirdest thing I've done in a while. And that's including a night spent in an artist commune back in my Academy days—which, believe me, is saying something.  _So_." He looked around at the rag-tag group with a wry grin. "How 'bout we get a drink, huh?"

Roxas smirked. "If you're buying."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a long time between updates! I've been living in the wilderness, and when I had computer access, I was mostly going through and editing past chapters, instead. And boy what an effort that was! 
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you think.


	14. The Cat's Tale

Though it was late, the bar Axel brought them to was full of light and warmth and the loud, rancorous laughter of the truly inebriated. He aimed toward a booth near the back and spread his limbs over a seat as he caught the eye of a waiter. The other three arranged themselves after him, quiet, tired, and slightly unsure of their surroundings. It was a rough sort of bar, full of equally rough clientele, and quite unlike Tifa's respectable establishment. It seemed like the kind of place where a fight could break out at any minute, but though the assemblage was shifty-eyed, drunk, and smiling perhaps a  _little_  too wide, nothing untoward appeared to be happening at the moment other than copious cigar consumption.

A bartender dressed in black and sporting a well-trimmed goatee stopped at their table and gave Axel a nod.

"Alrigh', Axel?" he asked. He had a bit of an accent that was hard to place.

"Doin' just fine, Luxord. Though we'd be a lot better with a round of beer for the table."

"You picked a good place, then." The bartender appraised the other members of the party with a mocking grin. "Interestin' table mates ya have here, eh?"

Axel rolled his eyes. "I don't want to talk about."

"You in for tonight? It's shaping up to be a good game."

"Maybe next time."

"Suit yourself," he chuckled as he turned back for the bar.

"Luxord, huh? Friend of yours?" Roxas smirked knowingly.

"An associate of sorts."

"Associate? What, is this some sort of mob bar? So that  _game_  was he referring to— is that like a gambling ring or something?" His eyes squinted in teasing amusement, and though he was currently human, the expression was decidedly cat-like.

"You wanna say that a little louder? I don't think the guy in the front heard you clear enough." Axel eyed Riku and the elegant, if somewhat scuffed and rumpled clothes he wore as he said this—but Riku was too busy investigating the crumbs on the table and blinking through the thick tobacco smoke to notice.

Sora was paying attention, however. "Mob of what?" he asked.

"Don't you fret your fluffy head about it," Axel said with a toss of his hand. "This is just a bar. Full of weirdos, sure, but a perfectly normal establishment just the same. But you know what  _isn't_  normal? Those shadow monsters. In fact, they strikes me as rather  _ab_ normal. So let's talk about that, shall we? Cuz I'm not entirely over that bit yet." He drummed his fingertips on the tabletop, then glanced warily at the blond boy sitting next to him. "Not to mention the fact that you're a person," he added.

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "You're even sitting in a booth in a populated establishment! That's a big step, you should be proud."

"So, what, you don't do it for me, but you do it for some monsters? Should I be insulted?" Now it was Axel's turn to smirk.

"You're making me regret staying human," Roxas sniffed. "Is that what you're aiming for?"

"When Roxas believes he or his friends are in immediate physical danger, he has the courage to show his true form," Sora pronounced simply. Which made Roxas fight a blush.

The corner of Axel's mouth twitched upward. "Did you read that in a psychology journal?"

"Sora is nothing is not succinct," said Riku, joining the conversation at last now that all mysterious stains in the booth had been noted and avoided accordingly.

Their drinks arrived, then. Sora thanked Luxord as he set their glasses down, which made the bartender stop short and give him an odd look. He frowned slightly and walked away without a word, more than a little unnerved.

"You creeped him out," noticed Riku. "I don't think servers like to be thanked."

"Everyone likes to be thanked," Sora insisted.

"Nah, don't worry about him. Luxord's always getting spooked over weird things. He's very superstitious," Axel dismissed. "Anyway, back to business. What's the deal with these shadow monsters, huh? And why doesn't anyone else seem to notice them running all over the place? I mean—those were houses we were next to, weren't they?"

"I don't mean to be rude, but I  _am_  rather interested in exactly who you are and why you seem to think this is any of your business?" Riku asked stoically from behind his glass. He took a delicate sip of his beer and looked at Axel through pale eyelashes; A perfect picture of polite aristocratic disdain.

Axel gave an ugly snort of disbelief. "Uh,  _okay_. Well excuse  _you_ , but  _I'm_  the guy who saved you about ten minutes ago? Maybe you remember? You know, with the fire and the light and everything? Not to mention the fact that I just bought you a drink. So you're welcome I guess."

Riku set his glass down lightly. "Low-quality alcohol and unasked-for gestures of generosity aside, in regards to your  _saving_   _me_ —if I recall correctly, it was your fire that made the shadows bigger. We might have been better off if you hadn't done anything at all."

"Don't be mean," scolded Sora. "Axel helped a lot. He's the one who took me and Roxas to the Nothing Man, so it's thanks to him we know about Xehanort's scheme!"

But Riku didn't think this was as worthy of praise as Sora did. "So  _you're_  the one who thought to go in person to talk to the Nothing Man," he said, really frowning now. "You risked their lives, put them in a situation where a curse-crazed murderer nearly killed them, all for information you could have found in a book any library would carry!"

Axel's face twisted up in a guilty smile. "I went back and saved them, didn't I?" he said, probably more petulant than he'd intended.

"If you're the one who put them in a life-threatening situation, it's only right that you save them again." Riku said, expression icy. He took another disinterested sip of beer.

"Makes sense to me," grinned Roxas.

"Now you're against me, too? Even after our afternoon of banter? I thought we had something special."

"He makes a good point," Roxas shrugged. "I hate to say it, but I agree with the noble on this one. That gooey guy was creepy as hell."

"The— _noble_? You're a  _noble_?" Axel's eyes widened as he looked over Riku again. His jaw clenched. "Jenova?" he gulped.

"That's my uncle."

"I see." His voice was somewhat strained.

"Is that a problem for you?"

"Yeah, is it a problem for you?" Roxas echoed, a shit-eating grin wide on his face.

Axel scowled at him. "You think this is amusing? This amuses you? You find humor in this situation?"

Roxas didn't try very hard to hide his expression behind his glass as he drank.

Axel narrowed his eyes. "You're kind of an asshole, aren't you?"

"You're the one who wanted to get to know me so badly."

Axel barked a laugh. "Fair enough." Then he turned back to Riku. "Look, I'm sorry about the whole Nothing-Man thing, alright? Sunshine here comes up to me with them big ol' eyes asking for help with a curse, what was I supposed to do? I'd been hearing people talk about the Nothing Man recently, and it just popped in my head. So sue me."

"Still, you should have known—"

"Stop picking on him," said Sora. "What happened is already done, and everything is fine." His tone was serious.

"Fine," sighed Riku. He knew when a discussion was finished. "So, let's brainstorm over why the monsters were so much stronger tonight, then. I wasn't a big fan of that, myself."

"Maybe it's not just you monsters are feeding off of," said Roxas. "War was just declared—what if the shadows are growing stronger because of that?"

"What!" Riku jerked forward in his seat, eyes wide. "It's official? Since when?"

"Just a few hours ago." Axel pulled the evening newspaper out of his back pocket and handed it over. "Time to hoist the flag and brush up on your marching songs."

Riku frowned as he spread the paper over the table. His alarm only grew as he read through the article. Sora leaned in close as well, and his eyes settled on the picture of Squall Leonhart scowling beside Sephiroth Jenova.

"Violence, chaos, fear, and hatred—that's what makes Xehanort stronger, if what Namine and the Nothing Man say is true," said Sora.

"We've got violence and hatred with the declaration of war, so it makes sense that the shadows would have gained power from it, right?" said Roxas

"Well that settles it." Sora planted his fist on the table like a judge's gavel. "Riku, you should stay with me from now on."

"What?" He looked up from the paper, perplexed.

"For when it's dark out, at least. I have the dagger and you can use snow, so we'll make my apartment shadow-proof."

"I…well, I mean, that's…" Riku faltered. Sora was giving him a determined look, one that was hard to argue with. He sighed, defeated. "Okay. I'll do it."

"Really?" said Sora, elated.

" _Really_?" said Roxas, suspicious. "I distinctly recall you wholeheartedly rejecting this plan just two days ago. You called it an  _extreme conclusion_ , if I remember correctly."

"Yes, well, circumstances have changed. Obviously." Riku's lips thinned and his cheeks burned.

Roxas scowled. He didn't particularly want Riku staying with them, but if Sora had decided, then there was nothing he could do.

Riku ran a hand through his hair and turned back to the paper with a sigh. "I knew this was coming, but it's a lot sooner than I expected. General Leonhart and Mage General Aqua were so against it, I thought their opposition would last longer…" He paused for a moment, frowning. A familiar voice at the bar had caught his attention and he turned in his seat to find the speaker. His eyes widened when he recognized a man walking toward the bar. He whipped back around in panic and sunk in his seat.

"What?" Sora looked over his shoulder to see what the fuss was about.

"Don't look! He'll notice!" Riku pulled Sora down by his shirt sleeve.

"Who'll notice?" Sora whispered conspiratorially, slouching down enough for Riku to release his sleeve.

"That's Lieutenant Xemnas!" Riku peeked over the back of the booth, and Sora followed suit. "What's he doing here?"

"Who? The guy that just came in?" asked Axel, leaning to get a better look. Roxas craned his neck as well.

"The one with the long gray hair— _but don't look!"_

Axel rolled his eyes and examined the man with dark skin and gray hair at the bar as openly as he pleased. "Oh, him. He's a regular, he's always in on Luxord's games."

They watched (with varying levels of discretion) as Lieutenant Xemnas exchanged words with the bartender. There was a sly movement of hands that might have been an exchange of money before Luxord led him to a back room behind the bar.

"But he's a lieutenant in the city's army!" Riku hissed in distress. "He shouldn't be in a place like this—much less regularly participating in gambling rings!" He turned back around and pulled at a lock of hair. "Do you think he saw me?"

"Lieutenant, you say?" Axel let out a low whistle. "Impressive. I didn't realize how far up Nomura's underground went."

"Nomura's underground?" Riku hissed. "You mean to tell me this really is a mob bar? You brought us to a  _mob bar?_ "

Axel shrugged. "I get a good discount here."

"I can't  _believe_  this! A Nomuran Army Lieutenant involved in criminal rings! This is a serious level of corruption—how many others are involved?" Riku's brow furrowed with a new realization. "And Xemnas was  _so_  insistent on declaring war, too! You think it's connected?"

Roxas' eyes slid to Axel. "You and your  _associates_  are due to earn a bit of money out of this war, aren't you? Maybe that Xemnas guy has a deal, too, if he's part of the same organization you're working with."

"Wait,  _what_?" snapped Riku. "You're making money off the war?"

Axel raised placating hands. "Hey, it's not what it sounds like, alright? I am very against the war effort. But technically, yes, I will be making some cash due to a business venture that does in fact hinge on war between Nomura and Alexandria. But it's, you know, helping the people, okay?"

" _What!_ You're—wh— _Helping the people!_ I can't  _believe_  this!" Riku was practically spitting venom. "This war is giving Xehanort power to create chaos and death—not to mention devour my soul and turn me into a  _gooey person!_  And you're— _helping the people!"_

"Well it sounds bad when you put it like  _that_." Axel snorted before draining his glass. "But it's not my fault there's a corrupt lieutenant. And maybe he  _is_  making money from the war. Wouldn't be the first time that kind of insider trading happened in the world."

"Let's get out of here," sighed Riku, tired and overwhelmed, as spent as a deflated balloon. He finished off the dregs of his drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "It's been a long day."

* * *

 

Back at Sora's apartment, sleeping arrangements were argued over. There wasn't enough room, really, for two boys and a cat to fit together on the narrow bed. Sora insisted that Riku, the guest, should sleep in the bed while Sora slept on the floor. Riku insisted, equally as stubborn, that he take the floor instead. Roxas agreed with Riku for the second time that evening—because he wanted to sleep on the bed and refused to do so if Riku were there.

"Fine," Sora sighed at last, throwing his hands up in defeat, a testament to his exhaustion. "I'll grab some pillows and blankets from Cloud's apartment."

"You think he's still awake? It's pretty late," said Riku.

"If he's asleep, I'll just let myself in. I do this kind of thing all the time."

"He doesn't mind?"

Sora's face cracked into a mischievous grin. "He'll mind. But it'll be funny. He gave me a set of keys to his place when I first moved here in case of emergency, but I'm pretty sure he forgot about it. So I go into his apartment every now and then and watch him freak out," he laughed. "Anyway, I know where he keeps the spare blankets."

"If you're sure," Riku said warily.

While Sora went off to collect bedding, Riku and Roxas were left to stare awkwardly at each other until his return. Roxas had turned into a cat upon arrival at the apartment and was now curled up comfortably on the bed. Riku stood stiffly and looked around at Sora's mess of possessions, sizing up the small room that was the entire home.

Riku blew air through his lips. "So," he ventured, "you can talk when you're a cat, then?" Because Roxas had surprised him by joining the conversation about sleeping arrangements while in his feline form.

Roxas gave him a dead stare and said nothing. His good mood was clearly dependent on the company of either Sora or Axel.

"I just figured a cat's mouth wouldn't be able to form human words, is all…" He trailed off. The resulting silence was a tangible weight.

When Sora burst through the door a moment later, cackling like a madman with a bundle of blankets in his arms, both boy and cat let out a breath of relief.

"How'd it go?" asked Roxas, preemptively chuckling.

"So funny!" he exclaimed as he dropped the bundle on the floor by the bed. "He was totally asleep, but then he sprang up like a jack-in-the-box and he's like 'how did you get in! Stop doing this!' And I just grabbed the stuff from his cupboard and ran away!" He laughed hysterically as he set up a place for Riku to sleep.

"Are you ever going to tell him you have a key?" Riku asked. He was smiling, now, too, for the laughter was infectious.

"Never!" cried Sora. "But if it's ever inadvertently revealed, I'll make sure it's an appropriately hilarious situation."

* * *

 

The next day, Roxas had lunch with Axel. They sat at a table by a window and ate seafood like two normal people. No one was entirely sure how it happened.

Sora had dropped Roxas off near the print shop at his request, when the delivery route had taken them to the area. Roxas had managed, in his cat form, to leap up and catch the door handle enough to turn it and open the door to Lexicon & Sons. He'd scuttled inside and, under Zexion's cool judgment, asked if Axel was around. Luckily, he was.

So Axel brought him to a cheap restaurant nearby and offered to pay on the condition that Roxas sit with him at the table as a human.

"I'd prefer not to be known as the guy who talks to cats in restaurants. Plus I don't think they'd serve you," he'd argued. "And anyway, you did it last night, right? What's the big deal?"

To both their surprise, Roxas agreed. Thus, they sat at a table like everyone else and Roxas ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, just for the unamused look Axel gave him for it.

The basis of the lunch date, of course, was that it was Roxas' turn to spill his closely-guarded secrets. And so Axel listened in rapt attention as Roxas told about his old life, about his family, about his home in Burmecia, about how everything had fallen apart.

 

Burmecia had once been a modern, bustling city, booming with economic productivity. When it stood, it had been a tall metropolis, with buildings stretching high above the coastline. Many of these buildings had been factories, churning out abundant quantities of clothing, lumber, and metal products. The rest were cramped apartments, which housed the workers of these factories. On the outskirts of the city, beautiful mansions dotted the hillsides, surrounded by nothing but lawn for acres and then by severe gates. The people who lived in these buildings owned the factories.

Roxas' parents had toiled all their lives within the bellies of the enormous factories in that dense, smog-ridden city. They had both been shape-shifters—his mother a jackrabbit and his father a ram—and they had imparted their magical gifts unto their sons—Roxas' older brother Ventus had been a bright yellow songbird. Having magic was not uncommon among the poor workers in the city, but talents often went to waste due to lack of opportunity and education. But Roxas' parents had been determined that their sons would live up to their potential and taught them the art of shape-shifting, as their own parents had taught them, when they weren't too tired after their long days of work. Roxas and Ventus would practice on their own, which mostly resulted in a fuzzy yellow cat chasing a fluffy yellow bird around their apartment building. No amount of broken furniture or scolding from adults could stop their games for long—and as it was in the pursuit of magical education, their parents were never too upset over their antics. Well, almost never.

Life had been good, for the most part. They had been poor, there were never any illusions about that, but they'd had food on the table when they were hungry and their apartment was usually warm enough to keep out the winter cold.

Roxas, like his brother before him, finished his schooling and joined the workforce by the age of eleven, and then it was more difficult to find time to practice magic. Many children he knew had started working younger, because their families had been more desperate for the extra income to feed themselves, but Roxas' mother had always insisted that her children would get at least some semblance of education.

He was hired by the factory that employed his brother, one of the major companies in Burmecia that produced machine parts for other factories. His father had been proud, for it was a well-respected company on account of its massiveness. Roxas had been proud, too. Proud to be earning enough to help put dinner on the table and pay rent and buy new shoes for his mother when her old ones got holes in the toe.

The work was hard, though. Days were long and involved doing one task about a million times until his wrists and back hurt. The supervisors were always cross and thought you were up to no good and didn't like it if you looked them in the eye or asked for a break. The factories were hot and cramped and you had to be careful with the machinery or else you might lose a finger or worse; Roxas had seen it happen to a couple of kids, usually the smaller ones who had to crawl into the machinery to fix a problem. He got to work so early in the morning that it could hardly be called morning and left so late at night that he just about dropped into bed as soon as he stepped through the door. Most days he never saw the sun at all.

He and Ventus were together, though, so it wasn't all bad. Ven could find a way to make anything fun.

The trouble started when the factories began decreasing workers' pay. Something about lower market values for their products in the cities oversea that the manufactured goods were sold to. Roxas never really understood, but his father would rave over it constantly. All he knew was that his and his brother's paychecks were getting smaller every month. The same for his mother and father; The garment factory and leather goods factory where his mother and father worked, respectively, had nearly halved their workers' pay. It was difficult to earn enough to buy food, and there was a fear that they wouldn't be able to afford their rent. Other families had already been forced into the streets, where they'd set up ramshackle houses in places you didn't want to walk past alone at night.

But there's wasn't much to do about it. Everyone would try to take on more shifts, but there simply wasn't enough time which to earn what they needed. There'd been a whole 48 hours once when his mother had stayed at the factory, sewing tiny stitches into clothes she could never afford to wear. Some of her coworkers just slept on the floor.

The factory owners only ever seemed to enter the city to make sure things were running smoothly and to make spending cuts so that the factory would earn them more money. They thought the city was dirty and dangerous, and they hurried back home in their shiny automobiles as soon as they could. They didn't care about the people who were suffering. It wasn't their problem.

"How can they do this?" his father would ask upon receiving his pay, a fraction of what it once was, which had never really been enough to begin with. "How can they pay so little for such hard work? There ain't no way to support a family like this."

But Roxas and his family were lucky to have jobs at all. There were countless others who didn't—they had been laid off after losing a hand to the machines, or they'd gotten pregnant, or the company had just fired them in order to save money for the owners. Long lines of desperate unemployed people waited outside the building offices, hoping to hear about a job opening somewhere. Doing anything. Anything at all.

And the heads of the companies were lowering wages, with these hoards of people looking for work. Cents a day. If anyone were to complain, a man at the gate would say something like:

"You don't have to take the job. Leave if you think you can find something better. There's a hundred other fellas lined up right outside would kill for that amount of money. They got families to feed."

And you might say something like: "Well I got a family, too. Only, how am I supposed to feed them on this? Ain't you got no heart?"

If you made too much of a stink, there were police who'd throw you out, who might even beat you in front of the lines of people waiting to get a job, to make a point to everyone watching. Sometimes if you were too rowdy, if you fought back or stood up for yourself, the police would take your picture and send it to all the other factories, and then none of them would hire you, no matter how little you were now willing to work for.

There was talk of unions.

"If us workers all stick together, we can stand up to the owners. We demand enough money for the work we do. If they refuse, we shut down the factory—we strike!"

The idea spread like colored dye in water. Strike! Union! Together!

Roxas' father was involved in the unions. He met with groups of equally-angry people and concocted plans of protests and organizing. They spread the word through the factories, trying to convince scared people to trust them, to stick together, that they might turn out triumphant, that life could be better.

The factory owners didn't like unions. They didn't like strikes, either. They couldn't help it if the other cities that bought their products were offering less for them—the owners had to cut costs to maintain a profit and keep the city competitive with other manufacturers, otherwise Burmecia would lose all business and the economy would collapse.

They ordered the police to deal with strikers and protesters, and when the police dealt with workers, the workers usually wound up dead.

Well, that just made the people angrier. More protests—and more police brutality in response.

Things escalated. People were growing desperate and the owners were quickly learning that people with nothing—no jobs, no home, no food—had nothing to lose but their lives, and they fought hard.

As the factories decreased wages and fired more people to increase profits, they created more desperate enemies, fighting with all they had to get food in their bellies and the bellies of their children.

 

Perhaps it was around this time, Roxas reflected, back in the seafood restaurant, that Xehanort had entered the picture, but he would never really know.

"The Nothing Man said Xehanort was responsible for what happened in Burmecia," Roxas explained, frowning at his plate. "Maybe the owners hired him, maybe he got a spot on the Board of Governors. I'd never heard of him before, but I was just some kid down in the muck, so how would I know anything? But if he's the reason no one could ever just find a way to compromise…then we have to make sure that what happened in Burmecia can't happen again."

 

What had happened in Burmecia was this:

The owners decided that the only way to deal with the strikers and protesters was to make the workers fear the owners and police more than they feared anything, so that they would be too afraid to rebel, and so would work at the pay rate the owners decided their work was worth. They hired the police to arrest anyone suspected of working with unionizers. People were rounded up without discrimination, homes broken into, people beaten to death for resisting. Violence in the city was blamed on protesters and agitators, to make it seem like the unions only really wanted anarchy, that those declaring themselves  _for the people_  didn't care about the people at all.

"See what kinds of things these unionizers do!" the owners would proclaim, from behind a guard of police. "They cause trouble and hurt people! They tell you to stop working and so you starve! No respectable person would associate with those trouble-makers and law-breakers! All they want is to destroy our economy!"

The owners' tactics worked on some, those who still thought that if they kept their heads down, they could avoid trouble and their family would be fine. But it didn't work on everyone. They didn't work on Roxas' father and other pro-union people, and so the unionizers persisted. They continued to spread the word of workers' rights and gain support from people who had nothing to lose. Some of these people were violent—roused into hatred for the way the owners had treated them, for their friends and family who had died working in the factories or who had starved to death when the factories stopped paying a living wage. Sometimes the owners didn't have to lie about the brutality of the unionizers.

Burmecia shivered and swayed with the labor wars, as they were called, and became unstable. Factories were failing, protests had shut down many operations and owners couldn't afford to make products to export at a high enough profit to keep their business afloat. But the owners refused to give in to demands, called the strikers anti-industry, claimed the city would turn to ruins because of them.

Then a garment factory caught fire and burned to the ground, killing 300 workers, almost entirely women, who had been trapped inside. It was the factory Roxas' mother worked in. Roxas' mother had burned alive, screaming.

That's when things made a decisive turn to chaos.

The workers rallied for the dead, the 300 mothers and sisters and daughters and women of the city who had died. They blamed the owners for not taking better precautions, for having unsafe buildings and machines, for not taking care of the workers.

And the owners blamed the workers. They claimed someone had sabotaged the factory and lit the fire on purpose. The owner of the garment factory had lost a lot of money when all his products and machines were destroyed in the fire.

Long-held grudges erupted into pure hated and fury. Protests became all-out brawling in the streets, workers against police. Some of the owner's mansions were broken into and burglarized, and some owners were killed as they drove their shiny automobiles through the city—Car bombs became a major concern. Police retaliated, beating people in the street at random. Militant groups formed, intent on destroying every factory they could, smashing machines and blowing up buildings, sometimes with people still inside.

Neither side thought the other was truly human. And so Burmecia succumbed to madness.

Roxas' father was taken on the streets one evening. He was grabbed by a gang of police, accused of working with the unions, and beaten bloody. He used his magic and transformed into a ram to fight back. Three police were trampled under his hooves and horns. He was shot six times and left on the street, pools of his blood draining down the sewers. Roxas and Ven found him some hours later, human in death. Neither were able to work up the courage to go outside for weeks afterward.

Roxas and Ven holed themselves up in their small apartment, which seemed smaller now that both parents were gone. Their landlord had died in a fight three days ago, so they had no fear of being evicted. Visions of death plagued the brothers day and night, in reality and in dreams—the image of their broken father, once so sturdy and full of love, and the imagined last moments of their mother, trapped in a cage and burning alive, screaming for help. Now all the brothers had left was each other.

They had stopped going to work in the factory months ago, first in solidarity with the strike, then because they had been too afraid of the violence outside. They had been fired and replaced, anyway, by people even more desperate than they, who braved the streets for work, cents a day, to scrounge for food for themselves.

The only time Roxas and Ven would venture out of their shelter was in animal form to look for something to eat. The streets, full of looters and brawlers and dangerous police gangs, were much safer for a bird and a cat than they were for two teenage boys. And less food was needed to fill their smaller stomach.

But still, food was difficult to find—The exports of factory goods had all but ceased in the chaos, and so the imports of food from other cities had stopped as well. Burmecia had never grown its own food—runoff of chemicals and by-products from the factories had done something to the earth surrounding and nothing would grow. Burmecia depended entirely on imports of agriculture from other cities, and when those imports no longer came, the people began to starve.

Soon there were no more 'sides' in the fighting; Political stances crumbled in the face of anarchy and starvation. Now people were fighting just to fight, killing just to survive. Many of the owners were dead, murdered by workers who had slipped past security or by their own servants. Some of the owners' children had starved, too, when the food ran out—try as they might, they couldn't eat their money.

Roxas and Ventus tried to flee the crumbling Burmecia. They weren't the only ones.

There had always been walls around the city, originally for protection against invaders centuries ago when that kind of thing was common, then as a way to prevent smuggling operations of important materials. Now the walls were watched by cruel men who had decided that no one was allowed to exit and took target practice on the hoards of people trying to force their way through the small gateway openings.

 

"We could never understand the guards on the walls, why they wouldn't let us leave," said Roxas. "But now, looking back, I wonder if they'd been possessed by shadow monsters. There was something inhuman about them. And their eyes had been strange—yellow, like the shadow monsters' eyes."

"If Xehanort wanted to create as much death and chaos as possible, he'd want to keep people from escaping," said Axel.

"He succeeded, then."

 

One day, when Roxas and Ven had been out searching for food, they came home to find that their apartment building had been reduced to rubble. Perhaps 100 people had died in the explosion, but there was no way to be sure—no one was counting. No one was sure who was responsible for the bomb, either, but that kind of thing hardly mattered anymore.

So Roxas and Ven were stuck on the streets with no place to escape. They remained in their animal forms full-time for safety; It wasn't as hard to hide as a cat or a bird, since there were many nooks and holes to hide in for sleep. Ven would keep Roxas close and try to keep up their spirits.

"We're gonna get out of here," he would say, a small, dingy yellow bird curled up in the matted fur of a dirty yellow cat. "We're gonna find a way out somehow. And we'll go somewhere far away, somewhere nice, and we'll eat ice cream all day long and do whatever we want. You'll see, Roxas. We're gonna get out, you'll see."

They spent their days planning their escape, watching the guards at the walls for any sort of pattern, some kind of weakness they could slip through. But the guards were tireless. They had eyes everywhere and shot at anything moving beneath or overhead and never missed a target. The people they would leave to rot, but the stray animals and rats and pigeons they would fetch to eat. Roxas had watched two guards fight over a stray cat, sinking black teeth into bloody flesh, fur and all, and he'd been unable to go back for a few days.

He would have lost all sanity if not for Ven. His brother was strong, a fresh wind that never died down, keeping the darkness from infecting their minds. Whenever Roxas began to lose reason or hope, Ven would remind him of their evolving escape plan, the places they would see and the good times they were sure to have, and sometimes it even seemed possible.

The day came when they decided to try their plan. There seemed to be fewer guards on the wall, perhaps perished along with the scores of people dying from violence or starvation every day. It seemed to be now or never for their escape.

They crept up as close as they dared, cat and bird, and waited. The goal was a small hole in the wall they had noticed on previous trips, a crumbling crack caused by explosion or neglect, through which light from the other end was visible—the end outside Burmecia. It seemed large enough for them to fit through. They only hoped they could reach it quickly enough.

To create a distraction in which to slip under the notice of the monstrous wall guards, they had set up a stack of metal sheets and other debris scavenged from various rubble heaps. Within this pile, they had set a small explosive device (stolen from a pocket of a corpse who had once been a member one of the many anarchy gangs) which would cause as noisy a ruckus as possible upon its detonation. Roxas and Ven could only hope that this noise caught the attention of the guards long enough for them to make it to the hole in the wall.

Ven hovered beside the detonator anxiously as the two fretted and stressed about their timing.

"Listen," said Ven, serious as a small bird could be, "when I press the button, you run for it. Okay? Don't even think. Just run. And don't look for me, just be sure to get yourself through. We don't have time to worry about each other."

"I'm not leaving you behind," Roxas scoffed and his stomach twisted with fear.

"You're not leaving me behind. You're focusing on yourself. And I'll focus on myself. If we lose even a second because we're looking somewhere else, we'll never make it. You got that?"

Roxas grimaced in worry, but nodded anyway.

"Promise me."

"I promise."

"Good. Because we're going to make it. We're going to get to that hole in the wall. And then we'll be free."

"Right," Roxas managed a weak sort of smile.

"All we gotta do is run as fast as possible—or fly, in my case."

"Okay. I'm…I'm ready when you are."

"I'm pressing the button in 3…2…1—GO!" The bird hopped with all his might on the detonator button, resulting in a thunderous blast which rattled the earth around them.

Up on the wall, the handful of guards were scowling in the direction of the commotion.

"What was that?"

"Should we check it out?"

"Nah, probably just another pipe bomb. Who cares?"

Roxas was sprinting toward his deliverance, bared claws scratching the pavement as he went. Beside him, Ven was flying as fast as he ever had, low and swift as a projectile.

"It was close, though."

"Go check it out if you're so interested. I'm not stopping you."

"Cover me, in case someone's there."

"Why should we?"

"Fine. Fuck you—shit what's that?"

"Get the gun! Quick!"

They'd been spotted. Roxas pushed himself to run faster, fear propelling him more than muscle alone ever could. He was so close. He could see the gleam of light from the other side of the crack in the wall. He forced himself to focus on that and nothing else.

A gunshot blasted through the air. Ven screeched in pain.

Roxas skidded to a halt, found his brother a bloody lump of feathers on the pavement behind him and his heart stopped. Ven looked up, caught his eye.

"Roxas run!" he screamed, voice ragged.

But Roxas couldn't move. He couldn't take his eyes off Ven, couldn't even breath.

Another gunshot rang out, but Roxas hardly noticed.

"RUN!" Ven screamed again.

And then Roxas ran, turned and bolted to the hole in the wall, slipped through like liquid.

A third gunshot behind him.

"What the hell? It's a kid?"

"Goddamned skeevy shape-shifters. They turn human when they're dead. Now I can't eat it.

"Fuck the bird, that's barely anything anyway. I wanted the cat."

"Then you have bad aim."

"Fuck you, the fucking bird got in the way."

Roxas raced through tall grass on the other side of the wall, blinded by tears, choked by anguish, suffocated by grief. He just kept running, it was all he could do. He ran from all he had ever known, he ran toward oblivion. He had no choice.

 

Roxas picked at his napkin absently, twisting a corner until it ripped. His eyes were dry and his voice was hollow. He picked up his fork and scrapped up the remains of his lunch, which he chewed over slowly. Across from him, Axel was respectfully silent.

After he swallowed his bite, Roxas took a breath and continued.

"I'm not sure about the timeline between leaving Burmecia and arriving in Nomura. Things are a bit…hazy. But at some point—weeks, months, who knows—I found myself in an alley cornered by a huge, vicious dog. Then someone comes and chases the dog away. Offers me a scrap of chicken—first real food I'd had in a long time that hadn't come out of a trashcan. Picks me up, takes me home, gives me food and water and a bed. He asks my name, probably rhetorically, but…I don't know. I told him." He gave a wry smile at the memory. "He wasn't too surprised, but then, Sora isn't surprised by very much. I felt safe with him. I started to feel more like myself, the way I was before everything went to shit. Maybe it's because of his light—he's has a pure heart. Maybe it fought some of the darkness that had infected me. But also…he reminded me of Ven. Just a little. In his expressions, his attitude, that kind of thing.

"Anyway, he eventually got me to tell him this story, too, and we made a deal. He'd keep my secret and let me live with him as a cat if I agreed to try to get better and eventually start living as a person again. That was, mm, almost a year ago, now."

Roxas fiddled with the napkin again and rubbed his eye for no reason. He looked up at Axel's somber face and put on an over-bright smile. "So you're all caught up now! Any questions?"

"I'm sorry," said Axel.

"Wasn't your fault," he shrugged.

"Still. I'm sorry for making you re-live it, just because I like to know people's business."

Roxas shrugged again, neither confirming nor denying. He examined his empty plate, face carefully blank.

"And for pressing the education issue, too," Axel added. "Since that's obviously something your parents wanted for you."

"Burmecia didn't have a mage academy. Rich people hired private tutors or went abroad to study, but there weren't all that many people with magic in the upper class to begin with."

Axel nodded thoughtfully and mulled over the remains of his lunch. "You know, when I was a kid, I never thought I'd go to a mage academy either," he said after a pause. "I was a rotten little monster running around with like-minded gangs of hooligans and causing trouble. Not exactly your model Academy graduate. But one day I met this guy who sort of…took my under his wing, so to speak, and for unknown reasons came to the conclusion that I had potential. He helped me out when I needed it, re-directed my energy and got me interested in improving my magic. He helped me apply to scholarships for school and helped pay for books and things. He helped me get a leg up in the world."

"Good for you," said Roxas. "From street urchin to mobster."

Axel gave him a flat look. "The point is that it's not impossible for you to get an education, too."

"What, you're gonna pay for me?" Roxas snorted. "Yeah right."

"I'm just saying there are things you can do. Scholarships and stuff to minimize costs."

Roxas pursed his lips and drummed his fingers on the table, looking anywhere but Axel's eyes.

"So what does this kindly rich man think of your current occupation?"

Axel's face stretched into a guilty kind of grimace. "He doesn't know about it. I haven't talked to him in a while, not since he moved to Mysidia. He travels a lot, probably finding more terrible misfits whose lives to change," he snorted. "I can hazard a guess, though, and say he probably wouldn't be too pleased. But I'm definitely better off—I would've gotten myself killed by now if not for him."

Roxas said nothing.

"I just think it's important that people with potential know that there are options," Axel continued. "Things are changing in the world. There are things you can do to change your circumstances."

"So that's why you're so interested in me," Roxas' lip curled into a sneer. Irritation rose up in his throat like steam. "You think I'm a terrible misfit and you can change my life? I'm some project to work on?"

"Yen Sid wanted to make me into a respectable person who could contribute something meaningful to society. He didn't quite manage the respectable part, but if I can help someone else the way he helped me, then I figure I'm not a complete failure," Axel said quietly. The twinge of regret in his voice erased the sneer off Roxas' face and quelled his anger.

A thoughtful silence stretched between them, heavy with the weight of the truths neither expected to give up so easily.

The two sides of Roxas, the calmly sensible and the irrationally emotional, were warring within him once again, filling him with a storm of uncertainty. He wasn't sure whether or not he regretted telling Axel everything, he wasn't sure whether or not he liked the fact that Axel wanted to help him, wasn't sure whether or not any of this…this  _friendship_  or whatever it was—was a good idea. A tight, nervous feeling squeezed his stomach like a furball toiling within him, fearful of the vulnerability he'd allowed himself to show this man he hardly knew. Yet at the same time, a lightweight sense of relief eased the tension from his shoulders, something like liberation and catharsis from having laid bare all his past pain, as if the burden had lessened somewhat now that someone else knew about it.

Well, he figured, like Sora had said the night before—What happened is already done. Now he would just have to wait and hope everything would turn out fine. He had no choice.

"So how about you buy me some ice cream?" Roxas suggested, sweeping his worries away to deal with later.

Axel rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

"Fine. But only because I want some, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was...a little different. Let me know what you think of it!


	15. The Formal Request

Sora was just short of wary when he arrived back at the office at the end of his day. He was careful as he leaned his bike against the front wall, cautious as he opened the door, quiet as he peered inside the room without entering fully. 

There wasn’t much to see inside, however. The large, perennially dirty front window illuminated the room as best it could with only the weakening light of the late day, but the lamps inside were unlit. The dark room hummed with tense, ominous energy, the source of which was the man sitting behind the desk, draped in shadows and radiating menace. 

Cloud had been in a foul mood earlier that morning, directing a fearsome glower at everything in sight, as if the inanimate objects had insulted him personally. He’d snapped at Sora and ushered him out the door without even making his usual fuss over Sora’s refusal to wear the company vest, which was especially telling; it seemed Cloud had not quite forgiven Sora for conversing with a certain army General. Nor did it appear that his mood had improved during the day. As Sora nosed around the edge of the doorway, he found Cloud glaring at a newspaper gripped in his hands, on the verge of tearing it in half.

Sora took a breath and steeled himself. Though he would rather have avoided it, it was nevertheless his duty, as delivery personnel, to present a list of delivery receipts to his boss at the end of the day. Even if his boss, an ex-assassin, seemed currently in the mood to murder someone. So Sora tip-toed into and across the room, attempting and failing at either stealth or grace. Yet he arrived at Cloud’s desk without incident. He pushed the receipts across the desk toward his boss with a healthy measure of hesitation. Cloud had yet to look up from his newspaper or acknowledge him in any way, and Sora wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one. He took a tentative step back, testing his luck. Perhaps he might escape after all.

Without warning, Cloud slammed the paper down on the desk. Sora froze.

“I have decided,” Cloud said through gritted teeth, without raising his eyes, “that we will no longer be receiving the newspaper.” 

Sora blinked. 

Cloud spread his hands over the paper to smooth it down and continued his intense scrutiny of it. Which seemed rather at odds with his proclamation. In fact, now that Sora’s eyes had adjusted to the  dim, he saw the desk was covered in newspapers, representing perhaps every news publication in Nomura. Even upside-down, he could see that all boasted headlines about the newly-declared war with Alexandria, and every last one paired the front-page article with pictures of General Squall Leonhart, whether beside Sephiroth Jenova, various combinations of military officials, or just a shot of the stern-faced man on his own.  

Sora’s eyebrows crept up to his hairline. “I see,” he offered carefully. “Well, it’s your subscription, so that’s up to you.”  

Cloud made no response; he was too absorbed with a grainy gray and black photo.

Sora pursed his lips as he studied his boss. But this was something that Cloud would simply have to work out on his own, he knew. So he shrugged and said,

“Alright. I’m heading out unless you need me for something.”

Cloud looked up at last. “Since when do you have plans?” 

“Since when do you read in the dark?” 

Cloud furrowed his brow and blinked at the room around him as if only just realizing how dark it had become without his notice. Sora, helpful as always, flicked on the desk lamp, and Cloud squinted at the resulting light illuminating the article at his fingertips. 

Before any possible retribution could be perpetrated, Sora scampered out the door, hopped on his bike, and pedaled away.   

Cloud frowned as he watched him go. He leaned back in his seat with a frustrated sigh, ran his hands through his hair, and contemplated the dust on his desk.

 

* * *

      

Sora’s thoughts were troubled as he made his way through town, for a strain of doubt colored his usually unapologetic nature. Maybe he had been wrong to meddle with Cloud’s life. Perhaps bringing up this part of his past would _not_ free Cloud from the weight of constant melancholy he carried, as Sora had hoped. Perhaps it would only make Cloud feel worse.   

But by the time he reached the gap in the fence of the Jenova Mansion, Sora’s misgivings were all but resolved. Aerith had said that Cloud and Squall needed closure, after all. And Squall clearly wanted to see Cloud again, if his actions the other day were anything to go by—you simply wouldn’t skulk around the business of your former lover if you weren’t interested in seeing them. As Sora ducked through the bushes into the vast yard of the aristocratic house, he was sure of himself once more, and free to focus on the task at hand.         

The day was nearly done, but he found Kairi, Namine, and Selphie watering flowers around the fountain in front of the house and he gave them a bright holler.     

Selphie wore gleeful sort of smile as he approached.

“You will _never_ guess what I heard today,” she said with a sly twinkle in her eye.

“Never?”

“It seems our dear Master Riku did not come home last night. And he showed up this morning in the same clothes he’d been wearing the night before! _Everyone_ is talking about it.”

“Sounds like a short conversation.”

“It’s a scandal!” she insisted. “A young aristocrat sneaking out and disappearing into the night, not returning until morning! Of _course_ that would arouse suspicion. Reputations called into question, hasty marriages to cover things up!”  

Kairi was rolling her eyes. “There’s no scandal. And I’m sure _you’re_ the only one talking about it.”

“Riku spent the night at my place,” Sora said. “We thought it’d be safer because— Oh, I haven’t told you yet, have I?” He immediately launched into the tale of their daring-do the night previous, the newly-discovered powers of _Oathkeeper_ , and the success of the light against the monsters. Selphie thought it wonderfully dramatic, but Kairi and Namine were more focused.

“So the dagger can amplify the light of your heart,” said Kairi. “And it materialized in your hand when you needed it, just like it did for the Firefly Queen. That’s incredible, Sora!”

“We didn’t have much luck finding information about magic daggers, but if we focused our research on heart magic instead, perhaps we can discover how to defeat this evil after all,” said Namine.

“We’ll include fiction in our library search this time. At this rate, legends and stories have been more useful than facts,” said Kairi.

“I’ve always found fiction to have more truth than fact anyway,” said Selphie. She was ignored appropriately.

“The sooner we start, the better,” said Namine. “It’s already getting late.”

Then, with barely a brief farewell, Kairi and Namine hurried off to the Jenova library. Sora and Selphie watched them go, feeling only mildly abandoned.

As soon as they were alone, Selphie turned to Sora with a sharp grin.

“So tell me,” she said. “What was it like?”

Sora frowned. “What was what like?”

“Oh, don’t play fool with me,” she scoffed. “I’ve seen the way you look at him. And you had him to yourself _all night_.” Her eyes no longer twinkled with fantasy, but rather peered into his soul with simple precision.

Sora pursed his lips. “Nothing like that happened.”

“Then I’m surprised at you. You strike me as a straightforward kind of person.”

Sora shrugged, for he had nothing to deny and nothing to prove. 

Selphie perked up at something over Sora’s shoulder, and her smirk widened. “Well would you look at this,” she purred. “The scandalous man of the hour. Off for another night with you, I suppose.”

Sora turned to see Riku walking toward them from the mansion, a small bag slung over his shoulder. When he noticed their attention, Riku offered a hesitant smile.

“Ah, there it is,” said Selphie.  

“What?” Sora turned back to her.

Selphie’s grin was toothy and self-satisfied. “That look on your face. With your eyes all bright and your smile all goofy— more than usual, that is. The look you get when Master Riku is around.”

Sora did nothing to erase the look from his face. What did he care if his smile was goofy?

Then Selphie’s smirk faded, hardened into something sober.

“Just be careful,” she said.

Sora frowned at her tone.

“Aristocrats are different. They live in a different world from you and me.” Her eyes were earnest and grave, no twinkle or trace of teasing. “They have rules and obligations, and things can get complicated or misunderstood very easily.”

He pursed his lips and studied her expression.

“I’m just saying be careful, is all.”

Sora rubbed his arm absently. “I gotta go. I’ll see you around.”

He jogged over to meet Riku, and by the time his friend was in front of him, his smile was goofy and bright once more. The two of them headed off to where Sora’s bicycle was hidden in the trees, heedless of Selphie’s pensive look behind them. 

And oblivious to more than one pair of eyes following their path from windows in the mansion above.

 

* * *

 

Riku had grown slightly more used to the stomach-churning flight of Sora’s bicycle, and his legs had only a faint wobble as he ascended the stairs to Sora’s apartment.       

“It’s snow-time go-time!” Sora declared as he flung open the door.

“Are you sure you’re alright with having a blizzard in your home?” asked Riku. “Houses are usually shelter from this kind of thing, you know. It’s going to be cold.”

“Am I _sure_ ? Of _course_ I’m sure! This is gonna be awesome!” Sora said, as if it were obvious.

Riku grinned. “Well, when you put it like _that_ …”

And so he began creating their own personal indoor snow storm, warping moisture and water droplets into gentle flurries. Snow drifted softly over the floorboards, bed, and table until it lay inches deep on every flat surface. Soon the room was blanketed in smooth, fresh, unspoiled winter, even while summer was warming the evening streets outside. When all was finished, they pronounced the apartment a sufficient barricade from any possible invading shadow monsters. But the temperature had dropped significantly, so they bundled up in as many coats and scarves as they could find.

“And now, for the first official order of snow-business!” Sora announced. “Well, second, I guess,” he amended. “The first was dressing appropriately for the weather.”

He then set to building a snowman— the purest and most instinctual response to the sight of pristine snow. Unfortunately, snowman-building was not a skill Sora had mastered, growing up as he had on an island with only mild, rainy winters. Thus, his creation was a sad, lumpy mound lacking any discernible snow-man features.

“Do you need help?” Riku asked from where he sat, crunching snow idly in his hands. His fingers were nearly numb.

“I most certainly do _not!_ ”  

Riku raised his brow in challenge. He spread his fingers with purpose until the snow beneath him was heavier and stickier than the light powder it had been. Then, with a simple movement of his hand, he shaped a snow pile into a portly man with a defined mustache and top hat, complete with perfect indentations for eyes, mouth, and nose. But he wasn’t trying to show off. Much.  

“No fair,” Sora scowled.

“We each have our different strengths. Mine happens to be flawless snow-sculpting.” Riku tossed his hair over his shoulder, looking smug.  

A handful of snow promptly smacked him in the face. He sputtered, indignant.

“Whoops,” said Sora with mischievous glee. “My hand slipped.” His hand slipped again and another snowball hit Riku squarely in the chest.

“This is not something you want to get into,” Riku warned. He wiped the slush from his face with a dangerous look. 

But Sora was already crouched in a battle-ready position preparing a pile of ammo, and he flung them in a wild barrage. Because how could he resist, really?

Riku only scoffed. Despite Sora’s marksmanship, this was a paltry challenge. Riku gave a wicked grin. At his command, a wave of snow rose up off the floor, and Sora had only an instant of lament before he was swallowed whole. There was silence before Sora emerged from the snow, hair frosty and nose pink. Riku snorted at the sight of him.

“And thus the legendary snowball war was ended,” Sora coughed dramatically, “as the honorable lumpy-snowman forces were defeated by the ruthless hat-and-mustache army.” He crawled out the pile of snow as if wounded. “Remember our struggle!” he wheezed.

Riku was unimpressed. “More like the disfigured rebels were demolished, despite their underhanded surprise tactics, by the might of the hat-and-mustache-snowman loyalists.”

“History is truly written by the victors,” Sora agreed despondently, sprawled across the floor.

They eyed each other warily for a moment, then broke into laughter.

Sora stood and shook snow out of the folds of his jacket.       

“We need cocoa,” he decided. 

Riku agreed wholeheartedly, and Sora crunched across the slush into the kitchen. He rummaged through his pantry and ice box for ingredients, grateful that he always kept his kitchen prepared for emergency hot cocoa needs. Sora had been warned about the cold of the mainland when he’d left home, and had taken the necessity of warm drinks very seriously. 

As he combined the milk, sugar, and cocoa powder and stirred his heating brew on the stove, a comfortable quiet settled over the room, emphasized by the gentle clink of wooden spoon against metal pot. Riku watched his friend work with soft eyes, knees drawn up and hands crunching snow absently.

When the cocoa was ready, Sora filled two chipped mugs and made his way to Riku’s spot on the floor. Riku accepted his drink, but blinked in surprise when Sora sat down immediately next to him, close enough that their elbows brushed. Sora wriggled into a comfortable position in the snow and Riku kept himself cautiously still when Sora’s knee or foot touched his. He gave Sora a look of confusion. 

Sora only grinned. “Body heat.”

“It’s not like we’re in danger of hypothermia. I control the temperature.”

“Do you want me to move?” 

“Well, er— I mean,” Riku fumbled, face suddenly as hot as his cocoa. “I guess it’s fine. You can do what you want.” He cleared his throat and took a sip from his mug to hide his blush.

Hot, sweet liquid burned its way satisfyingly down to his stomach, a stark contrast to the cold of the surrounding snow. Riku let out a sigh of satisfaction as the lingering chill of the snow eased away. 

“Do you like it?” asked Sora, eyes bright and blue and far, far too close. He seemed to be referring to the cocoa.

“Yes,” said Riku, feeling like a fool.

But then Sora smiled, and Riku couldn’t help but return it. A warmth only slightly associated with cocoa squeezed his chest, not unpleasantly. Sora looked away to take a sip of his own drink, and Riku could breathe again.

The quiet resettled around the room as they sat and drank, but it was a good kind of calm, as if their little snow storm was entirely removed from the troubles darkening the world outside. Riku found himself relaxing, no longer tense about the proximity of the boy next to him. Their elbows and shoulders brushed, but neither made an effort to move away.

Riku snuck a glance over to Sora. Sora caught his eye. Both smiled and blushed and looked away. 

Words bubbled up into Riku’s throat, vague and formless and difficult to articulate. He opened his mouth, on the verge of speech, having finally convinced himself it was something worth sharing—

And was utterly interrupted by a sudden hammering on the door.

Sora and Riku exchanged a look, then frowned warily at the door. Perhaps the shadow monsters had learned to knock?

“Sora! You in there?” a voice barked from the other side.

They let out a breath. No shadow monsters. Just Cloud.

Sora heaved himself up off the floor and went to answer the door with some trepidation. He found Cloud standing rigid and tight-lipped on the landing, and a flash of yellow fur streaked underfoot into the room. Roxas leapt up onto the bed and turned to eye them disinterestedly.

“Roxas! You’re back!” Sora beamed. “I was wondering when you’d get home.”

Roxas flicked his ears in response. He shot a glare at Riku, and Riku returned it.

Cloud, meanwhile, was gaping at the apartment, his stern expression having faltered in sheer shock over the apparently blizzard-ravaged room. Whatever he had been intending to say was momentarily forgotten, and what came out instead was: “What the hell!”  

“Oh, yeah, we have snow,” Sora said, by way of explanation. “But don’t worry, we waterproofed everything, so there shouldn’t be any leaks downstairs.”

Cloud squinted at him, baffled. “Why…” he managed.  

“The snow reflects light, so we’re using it to keep the shadow monsters at bay,” Riku answered.   

Cloud turned his bewildered squint to him, but after a moment sighed in defeat. “You know what— I don’t need to know. It’s strange, but it’s not what I’m here for.” 

“What _are_ you here for?”

Cloud pursed his lips. If Sora didn’t know better, he’d say Cloud looked embarrassed. Sora’s interest was piqued.

“I was wondering if you’ve seen my earring. I can’t find it,” he said, just short of mumbling.

“Your earring?” An impish grin spread wide across Sora’s face. “The one you wear when you wanna look fancy? What’s the occasion?”

“No occasion,” he said. “I wear it frequently. Only lately I’ve misplaced it and was wondering if you’ve seen it on your _frequent_ _forays_ into my apartment.”

Sora held his chin in thought, not at all apologetic about his frequent forays. “Not on your dresser? Or the dish where you keep your keys?”

“No, I checked.”

“The table in back of the office?” 

“No.”

“Between the cushions of your chair?”   

“I checked every cushion I could find.”   

“The ice box in the office kitchen?” 

“Why would it be in the ice box?” 

“Did you look?”

“…It wasn’t there.”

“Maybe it got caught on one of your shirts from the last time you wore it? Or in a pocket somewhere?”   

“Ah, didn’t think of that.” Without another word, he turned and left, heavy boots thudding up the staircase as he made quick work of the distance to his apartment.  

“What was that about?” Roxas asked once Sora had closed the door.   

“He’s just trying to look fancy in case Squall comes around again” said Sora, feeling marvelously pleased with himself.   

“So your boss had some kind of relationship with Squall Leonhart? The General?” asked Riku. “You mentioned him the other day at the mechanic shop.”

“That’s the one. You know him?” 

“A little. He’s an interesting guy, I guess. Very stern. Rather brooding.” 

“Brooding, huh? I guess that’s as good an adjective as any.”

Sora picked up his mug and settled back into the snow on the floor next to Riku. But there was space between them now, much to Riku’s disappointment. Riku took a sullen sip of cocoa and pressed his palms against the heat of the mug.  

“So where have you been, then?” Sora asked the cat with an arched brow. “It’s getting late, I was starting to worry.”  

Roxas had the decency to look sheepish. “Sorry.”

“How’s Axel?”

Roxas studied the snow on the quilt beneath him. “Not as big a jerk as I originally thought.”  

“You’ve been with him all day?”

“Yeah. We talked. It was…nice.” That last word seemed to contain a multitude of definitions, and  Sora peered critically at him.

“How’s the snow barricade going?” Roxas asked when he realized the attention was still on him. “Any shadow monster incidences?”

“Not yet,” said Riku, bracingly. 

“I have _Oathkeeper_ , just in case.” Sora took out the dagger from his bag, and it flashed in his grip. The bright snow reflected the light around them and everyone squinted.  

They all turned to the door, as if the monsters might suddenly burst through, but all remained still. Just for good measure, Riku shoved a lump of snow over the doorjamb.

 

* * *

 

“Wake up, nerds,” said Roxas, walking all over Sora’s face as he did at the start of nearly every day. “C’mon, get up already. I’m hungry.” It was approximately 6:30 in the morning. 

Sora grumbled and swatted at Roxas, but the cat dodged him expertly.    

“Get up. Get up. Get up,” Roxas continued, chanting now to the rhythm of his kneading at Sora’s stomach.  

“C'mon, that’s like, directly on my bladder,” Sora groaned in protest.   

“My kneading is basically a massage. How do you think you’re always so stress-free?” 

“Not from sleeping in, that’s for sure.” Sora rolled to his side and shoved the cat away. But the damage had been done—Sora now had to pee. There was no point trying to go back to sleep now.   

So, to Roxas’ triumph, Sora sat up, disentangled himself from his blankets, and stood. He tugged at his rumpled shirt and flannel pants as he stumbled toward the door, taking care not to step on Riku’s blanket huddle on the floor.

Riku was glaring with sleepy hate at the two of them from between his mess of hair and the edge of his blanket.   

“Why,” he croaked, too tired for vocabulary. Almost this exact exchange had occurred the previous morning, too, and he was not a fan of it.  

“Because it’s time to get up,” Roxas insisted. He made a point to jump on Riku’s knees as he passed. Riku scowled darkly and pulled the blankets tighter over his head, muttering something about frozen cats.   

“No fighting before sunrise,” Sora yawned as he hopped out the door to use the flush toilet in the office downstairs. 

Roxas followed him outside, feeling he’d won that particular exchange. He stretched his legs on the landing and took a deep breath of the brisk morning chill before he jumped up onto the railing and settled himself. His buzzing thoughts slowed and drifted, leaving the cat peacefully blinking in the soft light.

Once upon a time, Ven had loved mornings. He’d basked in the tenuous space between night and day, marveled as the sky shifted through pastel hues before settling. Once upon a time, Roxas had thought his brother ridiculous for loving mornings. Now, as Roxas tucked his tail around himself, he closed his eyes and thought of his brother. For the first time in a long while, the memories were mostly happy ones.  

It was possible this shift had something to do with his conversation with Axel the day before, and Roxas was okay with that.  

Sora lumbered back up the stairs after a minute, blinking slowly and scratching his belly. He gave the cat a rub behind the ears before heading inside to start breakfast.

Breakfast preparations, however, proved somewhat of an ordeal. Sora tried to be quiet for the sake of Riku’s blanket bundle still attempting sleep, but as usual, the clangs of dish and utensil were amplified by the stillness of morning, transforming clink into crash. Sora winced with every thunderous noise, darting guilty looks over to his guest on the floor a few feet away. Eventually, Riku gave up on sleep. He exchanged his pajamas for fresh clothes he’d brought and tried to smooth his bedraggled hair into something respectable. 

When breakfast was ready, they gathered around the small table to eat. It was a squeeze with the extra person, but Roxas was deaf to any requests for him to get off the table or eat on the floor. Riku peered into the bowl set before him and dipped his spoon into the steaming, tan, somewhat amorphous substance within.    

“And what exactly _is_ it that we are fortunate to be eating this morning?” he asked carefully.   

“Oatmeal,” Sora answered around a mouthful. “Same as yesterday. Today I added raisins.”    

Riku nodded thoughtfully and took a delicate bite. “The texture is intriguing,” he said with all the seriousness of a scientist examining a specimen.      

“It’s just boiled oats,” said Roxas. “You ate the same thing yesterday.” 

“The texture continues to intrigue.” 

Riku felt he’d been learning a great deal during his time in the home of a member of the working class. Besides the revelation that a kitchen, dining room, and bedroom could all in fact be the _same room_ , he’d also discovered the sensations of sleeping on a hard surface and waking up without a cup of tea. He was still undecided as to whether these were positive or negative experiences, but in any case, it was a change from the strict, stifled life in the Mansion, and that could only be a good thing. His back was in decent shape after sleeping on the floor, too, which was entirely unexpected. 

He took another spoonful of oatmeal and chewed a raisin carefully. He caught Sora’s eye and grinned, to which Sora gave a snort and shook his head at him, smiling. Roxas ignored the pair of them as obstinately as he could.  

Breakfast conversation revolved around the apparent success of the snow barricade; No shadow monsters had broken into the apartment during the night, and as far as they were aware, none had even attempted. It was therefore decided that Riku should spend the night indefinitely. Roxas suggested setting up a similarly-protected snow room somewhere in the Jenova Mansion, but neither Riku nor Sora were particularly enthusiastic about that plan.          

Riku confessed he had a day off from his rigorous lesson schedule, and Sora thought it would be fun to take him on his delivery ride. Roxas was skeptical. 

“The extra weight will throw off your balance and slow you down,” he pointed out.

“Challenges are essential to growth,” countered Sora.

“He’ll have nowhere to sit with the packages.”   

“We’ll make multiple trips and not carry as many boxes on the back.” 

“Cloud will say no.”    

“I don’t have to come with you if it’s a bother,” Riku offered despondently, which only served to make it clear how much he wanted to join.   

Sora gave Roxas a look and Roxas gave a sigh.  

“It’s not a bother,” said Roxas, though it took some effort. His last argument had been weak, anyway.   

Downstairs, Cloud hastened them out the door without so much as a second glance at the additional member of his delivery team. He was distracted by a sudden interest in the office’s organization (or lack thereof, rather) and seemed to smolder with directionless stress. But the earring had evidently been found and his blond hair had a bit of shine to it. Sora was smirking as he pedaled away.  

As Roxas had predicted, the delivery ride was made somewhat more complicated by the second body and change in weight distribution. But it was fun. They whooped and hollered as they made sharp turns or bumbled down steps. They raced unsuspecting automobiles on the street and won almost every time. They called to people they knew and even people they didn’t. They joked about the what the various plain-wrapped packaged might hold and tried to guess what the people would look like before they arrived at their doorstep, sometimes with surprising success. Even Roxas was having fun, despite his determination to dislike Riku. 

They stopped back at the shop to re-load new cargo, and it was close enough to lunch that they decided to take a break. Any thoughts about taking that break anywhere in the shop were quickly aborted at Cloud’s dark glower, but there was a sandwich shop a block over that suited them just fine, anyway.

“Can we sit outside?” Riku asked when they arrived at the shop. He had a wistful look in his eye, so Sora and Roxas agreed despite the fact that the sun wasn’t quite out and the air was cool. They were seated swiftly and placed their orders with a waiter.   

“It’s just, I’ve always wanted to sit at a street-side table at a little restaurant,” Riku said once their food had arrived. “They always seem so… I don’t know. Picturesque, maybe. Like something in a painting. I’m sure you’ll think it sounds silly, but it’s the truth.”

“You’ve never sat at a table outside a restaurant before?” That was the part Sora found strange.

“An aristocrat dining at a place like this isn’t generally _done,_ you know. Our meals tend to be large affairs requiring strict etiquette and no small amount of drama.” Riku paused and smiled. “But here I am! Just another modern, cosmopolitan citizen!” He raised his paper-wrapped sandwich like a proud trophy. Suddenly he looked much younger. 

Sora chuckled. “Is it everything you hoped it would be?” 

And though it had been said teasingly, Riku was serious enough as he considered his answer. He looked over his half-eaten sandwich, up at the sun-faded awning above them, around at the people and automobiles ambling along the street. Finally he raised his eyes to meet Sora’s.   

“It is,” he concluded.         

Sora’s cheeks heated at the openness of Riku’s gentle smile.

“I’m glad,” said Sora, somewhat faintly.  

Roxas eyed the two of them, annoyed. He knocked a fork off the table to make sure they remembered to pay attention to him, too.

When lunch was finished, they headed back to the shop to gather up more packages. Roxas, however, decided he’d had enough deliveries for the day, and insisted they leave him behind.  

“I’m tired,” he announced from within an empty box on the table of the office kitchenette.   

Sora bent to Roxas’ level with a look of concern. “Are you alright?”

“Perfectly. I’m just tired of working, is all.” _Tired of being a third wheel_ is what he did not say.

Sora scratched the back of Roxas’ ear tenderly, but his concern remained. “Are you sure? It’s fine if you want a break, but if you’re upset about something, you should tell me. I know you’ve been dealing with a lot lately.”  

Any earlier irritation Roxas may have felt melted away in the force of Sora’s sincerity. He turned to gnaw on Sora’s finger, then released him.

“Have you ever known me to keep it a secret when I’m upset?” he asked with a wry quirk of his ear.

Sora smiled and shook his head no.

“I’m fine,” said Roxas. “I’ll let you know when that changes. Now leave me.”

Sora gave him an affectionate ruffle before getting up to finish loading his bicycle outside.

In the doorway, standing carefully still, Riku eyed Roxas in contemplation. Roxas met his gaze deliberately with something like a challenge, a hard warning. Riku’s lips pressed into a firm line and the silence between them became palpable. After a moment, Riku turned and left.

“You ready?” Sora asked when Riku joined him by the bicycle, now loaded and strapped with packages. 

Riku’s heartbeat seemed loud in his ears, but he couldn’t think why it should be.

“As I’ll ever be, I suppose,” he said, smiling.

And so they were back to racing through the city, just the two of them, now, and somehow that small change altered quite a lot. Every word exchanged had a strange kind of weight, every pause, a kind of electricity. Riku was very conscious of his arms clasped around Sora’s waist, and Sora shivered at Riku’s breath on his ear. Soon the last package was delivered, and both had to remind themselves not to be disappointed.

The sun had finally burned off the haze of clouds, and the late afternoon had turned into a pleasant one, so the duo made a stop at Crescent Park to celebrate the end of their delivery ride. They appeared to have the park to themselves, despite the weather’s improvement.

“That didn’t seem like a tremendous amount of work,” said Riku, lounging on soft grass in a patch of sunlight. “Perhaps I could get used to a life of employment.”

“Days aren’t always this easy, though. If you’re really interested in hard labor, there’s a lot more you’ll have to deal with,” Sora warned.

“For example?”

With a sly grin and an intent to terrorize, Sora told tales of working-class woe: of rude customers, of absurd delivery requests, of dogs who chased. Flat tires, dangerous neighborhoods, heavy packages. Long hours and sore muscles. Riku’s expression grew slowly into horror as the stories progressed.

“Alright, alright,” Riku said at last, waving his hand in distaste. “Perhaps I wouldn’t like it so much after all. I will only join you on the days when it is fun.”

Sora laughed and stretched out on the grass. “Every day you join will be fun, though,” he said.

Riku’s throat did a funny thing where it caught for a moment, and he couldn’t say anything. Instead, he blushed and ripped up pieces of grass. Sora was sprawled in a pose of utter content, with his hands behind his head and his eyes closed. Riku tossed the torn grass at him.

Then, “Oh, Sora, don’t move. There’s a bee by your leg.”   

Sora propped himself up on his elbows to see a fat, black bumblebee hovering around his shin, investigating the sparse hairs there. He sat up fully and watched it’s progress with interest. 

“He’s not doing any harm,” Sora decided. “Just going about his bee business, collecting pollen and stuff.”

“Actually it’s the female bees that collect pollen,” Riku corrected.

“She, then” Sora granted. “Still not hurting anyone.”

“I don’t like bees,” Riku admitted, eyeing their buzzing companion warily. He tugged a particularly large chunk of grass out of the lawn.

“Why not? Bees are cool.”

Riku scrunched his nose. “They make the flowers possible, I’ll grant you that. As pollinators, they’re the reason we have agriculture, they’re part of a complex natural ecosystem. And yet, I hate them. I hate their weird little guts.”

“Any particular reason?”    

“Well for one, they have no respect for proper aerodynamics; It doesn’t make any sense that those ridiculous little wings are able to support their bodies in flight, and I don’t know how I can have any respect for something that can’t follow simple things like the laws of physics.” 

“ _That’s_ why you don’t like bees?” Sora was grinning, chin in his palm as he watched the bee crawling up his leg.

“That and they can kill me. I’m terribly allergic to their sting, of course. But mostly it’s the physics thing.”

“So don’t let it sting you, then.” 

“Oh, is _that_ all I have to do?” Riku snorted. 

Sora cupped his hand down for the bee to crawl on, ignoring Riku’s stifled noise of distress. The bee explored the pad of his index finger, inching toward his palm and wiggling slightly in that funny sort of dance bees have. Then, abruptly, it took flight once more. Sora felt his heart nearly skip a beat at the loss. The bee then turned its attention to Riku, who stiffened, glaring at it.

“She’s just looking for a nice flower,” Sora said.

“That’s all well and good, but the fact remains that I am _not_ , in fact, a flower,” said Riku through gritted teeth. “Don’t you dare, bee,” he said as it aimed in his direction. It circled him several times lazily, then hummed off and away, much to Riku’s relief. A minute later, however, it returned to hover around his hand.

“No. No nono _no!_ ” But the bee perched precisely on Riku’s knuckle, regardless of his protest.

“If you don’t freak out, the bee won’t either,” said Sora.  

Riku let out a tense breath. “Fine,” he said. “But when it stings me and I go into anaphylactic shock and _die_ , it’ll be _you_ who has to deal with it, you hear me?”

“You’re very dramatic,” Sora chuckled.  

“Excuse you, but I am an appropriate amount of dramatic considering the circumstances.” But there was a smile in his voice, and Sora laughed.  

The bee wandered along the back of his hand, and Riku’s jaw clenched because it tickled. After a short moment, the bee evidently agreed with Riku — he was not a flower at all — and took off to find something more suitable.

“I escaped death by an inch,” he sighed.  

Sora was quiet as he watched the bee flit away to the flowers nearby.  

“What are you smiling at?” Riku asked him.  

“Just thinking ‘bout the laws of physics.”    

“I’m sure,” Riku snorted.

They fell silent. After a moment, Riku began to fidget. He frowned at the torn grass, then looked up at Sora anxiously. But Sora was leaning back on his elbows, gazing with half-lidded eyes at the sky while dappled patterns of light through the trees played over his skin. Riku chewed his lip. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He tossed more grass.

“Sora,” he managed at last.

Sora looked up and his smile made Riku falter for a moment.

“Riku,” Sora prompted when Riku failed to say anything.

Riku’s brow furrowed and his lips pursed. He sighed and tried again. “I… It’s just… oh, never mind.”

Sora sat up fully. “What is it?”

“Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Riku muttered in utter defeat. He ran his fingers through his hair and studied the fabric of his trousers very closely.

“Well now I’m going to worry about it,” Sora insisted. “What is it? What were you going to say?”

“I…” Riku looked up. And though his stomach was coiled up in anxious knots, he couldn’t help but smile at the comical sort of concern on Sora’s face, with his eyes overlarge and his mouth screwed up in a lopsided line. “You… you have a piece of grass stuck to your cheek,” he told him with a breath of a laugh. “And it’s all in your hair.” Which was true.

“Oh, grass monster, huh?” Sora had just the slightest blush of embarrassment.

He shook out his mess of hair, and a rain of grass bits resulted. But the stray grass was now able to drift and land wherever it pleased, and then the two of them were covered in it. Riku protested, trying to brush the offending plant bits from his shirt.

Because Sora was a fairly transparent person, Riku saw the exact moment a terrible idea occurred to him, and his eyes widened in horror as Sora’s grin turned mischievous. In a swift movement, Sora got on all fours and shook his head again vigorously like a wet dog. Riku’s yelp turned to helpless laughter as Sora butted his head into Riku’s shoulder, attempting to rub whatever grass remained in his hair into Riku’s shirt. Riku had been the one to tear it up in the first place, after all, so it was only fair that he suffer the consequences.

Finally Sora sat back, chuckling madly, hair wild. Riku gave him an unconvincing glare.

“You still have that one piece on your face,” Riku pointed out.        

“Where?” Sora wiped at his face unsuccessfully.

“Here, let me.” Riku leaned forward and gently brushed the strand of grass from Sora’s cheek with his thumb. “Got it,” he said with satisfaction.

He then made the mistake of looking up, only to find his nose mere inches from Sora’s. Sora’s eyes were the purest blue and his pupils were wide. His eyelashes were thick and dark, and his golden-tan cheeks were flushed. And he seemed to be holding his breath, with his lips parted just slightly.

Riku hesitated, unable to move away. Unable to move at all. And utterly unable to look away from Sora’s eyes. Sora was likewise frozen in place.

“I…” Riku’s throat caught. But he took a shallow breath and continued. “I would very much like to kiss you, if that’s alright.”

Sora blinked. Then his eyes crinkled in amusement and he smiled and opened his mouth… and _laughed_.

Riku sprung back, face flaming. His stomach dropped and his mouth thinned into a rigid line. “And just _what_ , may I ask, is so funny?” he demanded.

“I’m sorry,” Sora chuckled. “It’s just— you’re so _formal_.” His eyes twinkled with delight. Teasing him. But not rejecting him.

The stone in Riku’s stomach dissolved somewhat and he caught his breath. “Well, I’m an aristocrat. Formal is what we _do_.”

His lips pulled into a tentative smile and his eyes searched Sora’s hopefully— but there was only an instant before Sora leaned forward and caught Riku’s lips with his own. Riku’s heartbeat thudded in his ears and his eyes fluttered shut as he tilted his head and pressed into the kiss.

Sora’s lips were chapped, and the way they were kneeling on the grass was not the most comfortable, and it wasn’t easy to kiss someone when you both kept smiling. But none of that mattered, really. Because the grass was soft and the sun was warm and each was kissing a boy that they wanted to kiss very much.

Then Sora pulled away slightly, just enough to say, “Lord Riku, I do formally accept your request to kiss me.” His breath ghosted over Riku’s lips and his voice was slightly rough. They looked at each other through their eyelashes, smiling. “You may now proceed.”

Riku closed the distance to kiss him again, with a hand on Sora’s cheek to hold him steady. 

An eternity later (or maybe it was just a short moment) they pulled apart, breathless. Their eyes were bright with the discovery of this new, fantastic thing. Their chests felt close to bursting with excitement and joy, and both could see their own feelings reflected back at them in the face of the other. 

Sora opened his mouth to say something, but came up empty.

So instead he kissed Riku again, thrilled at the ability to do so. In his enthusiasm, he knocked Riku to the ground, and their noses and teeth clashed together on impact. Riku laughed as he rubbed his injured nose, and Sora blushed and apologized. But Riku only pulled Sora down into another kiss, gentle this time, ecstatic that no one would stop him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long last, an update! I'm as surprised as you are!
> 
> Let me know what you think. Comments are a blessing.


	16. The Sovereign’s Demand

Riku returned to the manor late in the day with joy bubbling up in his chest and a hazy smile on his face. The feel of Sora lingered on his skin like warm sunshine and an idle tune played in his head to match the bounce in his step. He felt like a weightless feather soaring with the wind. He felt unstoppable, impervious to any terrible thing that might cross his path.

Leave it to Sephiroth Jenova to ruin all of that, of course.

Riku had been planning on quickly finishing some homework before catching the train back down to Sora’s apartment to spend the night. It shouldn’t have taken long. But when Riku opened the door to the small library to grab his textbooks, he found his uncle lounging on the prim green couch, flipping through the pages of a book impassively. As his joy turned to cold dread, Riku realized that this would not be a quick stop at all.

“Lingering in doorways is a distasteful habit, Riku. It implies self-doubt,” Sephiroth said without looking up. His voice had a smooth, rich timbre like a low note from a cello and his pearl white hair was perfectly smoothed down his back, bright against his pristine dark suit. To say Sephiroth Jenova was an intimidating figure would not only be an understatement but would also entirely miss the elegant, subtle peril his presence implied. He looked like the personification of a polished blade.

Riku swallowed a lump in his suddenly-dry throat and entered the room.

“Good afternoon, Uncle,” he said bracingly.

Sephiroth raised his sharp green eyes from the book and gave Riku a long, level look. “Afternoon? I might say it is closer to evening. Therefore ‘good evening’ would be more appropriate.” Any situation was an opportunity for a lesson with his uncle.

“Good evening, then.” Riku kept his tone carefully even and his face expressionless.

“Perhaps if you consulted your pocket watch, you would know how late it is. That is why I gave it to you, after all.”

Riku’s stomach sunk instantly.

“Or perhaps it has not been wound correctly. May I inspect it?”

“You wish to inspect my pocket watch?” Riku asked faintly.

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

“I don’t have it with me,” he admitted. Riku thought fleetingly to the crows’ nest deep in the forest and wondered what his watch was being used for at that moment.

Sephiroth’s resulting silence was scathing.

“I apologize,” Riku added.

Sephiroth closed the book in his hands and set it aside. He laced his long fingers together and placed them over his knee. “That explains your tardiness, I suppose. It does not, however, explain your absences. I am accustomed to my family members accompanying me at the dinner table. You have lived here long enough, I thought you were well aware of this. And yet I have been without the pleasure of your company these past three nights at least.”

“I apologize, Uncle, if my absence was not adequately explained to you. I have been occupied with…” Riku’s mind worked quickly for a suitable explanation. Something not entirely false, yet something his uncle could hopefully not condemn. “My studies,” was what he settled on.

Sephiroth’s eyebrows raised politely. Challengingly. “Your studies?”

“Yes. I have been working on my application for the Nomura Mage Academy and studying for the entrance tests.” Satisfied with his explanation, Riku straightened his posture. 

“And your studying has made you forget to attend dinner?”

“My concentration is sometimes such that I forget the time. It was not my intention to neglect familial obligations.”

Sephiroth’s expression was one of thoughtful interest. “I see. Perhaps that could have been solved by the use of your pocket watch. But one must remember to carry it if one is to use it.”  

Riku shifted uneasily.

“Won’t you take a seat?” Sephiroth gestured to the chair across from him. “I am interested in hearing more about your studying process.”

Riku knew he had no option but to sit. He did so carefully, shoulders back and chin raised.

“Tell me, Riku, which aspect of your studies involves your leaving the manor at ungodly hours to go off traipsing into the woods? Or gallivanting about town like some common vagrant on a bicycle?”

Riku paled. “It’s, um,” he cleared his throat. “Practical studies.” He didn’t bother asking how his uncle knew these things. Perhaps it was the mud on his clothes from his fall in the stream that night in the forest, perhaps someone has seen him on the back of Sora’s bicycle. Either way, Sephiroth always seemed to know everything that went on in his city.

“Practical studies,” Sephiroth repeated, green eyes narrowed.

“Yes. So far, my education has been mostly conceptual bookwork. But the entrance exams require demonstration of magic, so I thought I should focus on application of techniques and test my abilities in the field.”

“Is Master Eraqus accompanying you on these _field outings_?”

Riku paused, wondering if he should chance the lie. But he was sure Sephiroth knew the answer already. “No.”

“Has he specifically instructed you to do these things?”

“Well, not exactly. But he says it’s important to exercise my magic and I think this qualifies.”

“I see.”

“My efforts have been showing results,” Riku insisted. “Even if the methods are…somewhat creative. Just two nights ago, I conjured several ice towers at least thirty feet tall while under pressure. I turned vapor into solid, completely bypassing the liquid stage. I even caused it to snow over nearly half the eastern district.” Riku paused to collect himself. “My ventures have been very educational. Even if Master Eraqus is not accompanying me, I believe my skill has improved.”

Sephiroth studied him quietly for a long moment.

“Tell me, nephew, who _has_ been accompanying you on these ventures, in place of your hired tutor?” At last, his uncle got to the real issue of his visit. Riku’s heart sank in shame. He should have known something like this was inevitable. He might only have wished that he’d had more time before it happened.

“A friend of mine,” he answered quietly, unable to meet his uncle’s intense gaze.

“What is your friend’s name?”

“His name is Sora.”

There was a pointed pause as Sephiroth waited for the rest of Sora’s name, some family lineage or title as would be customary for anyone of standing. But they both knew none would be forthcoming. 

“I don’t know his last name,” Riku admitted, because he knew Sephiroth would wait until he did.

“Does he have one?”

“Probably not.”

“I see.”

Riku’s eyes snapped up as his anger flared. “He is my friend.”

“He is a commoner. A peasant, even,” Sephiroth said with an incredulous sneer. “It is beyond inappropriate for you to spend time with him. You are an aristocrat and my nephew. You would do well to remember that, Riku.”

“He is my _friend_ ,” Riku repeated fiercely. “He is honorable and courageous and kind and—”

“Admirable qualities, I’m sure. But you must know that this relationship cannot continue,” Sephiroth said with calm patience, simple and decisive. This only infuriated Riku more.

“Who exactly is harmed by this friendship?”

“Your reputation is harmed. Your actions and associations affect how others see you, and if you insist on connecting yourself with those of low standing, you become so yourself.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Riku all but spat.

Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed at his impertinence. “You are not the only one affected. Damage to your reputation impacts the reputation of both myself and your cousins. You know that.”

“Since when have you ever cared what the nobility of this city thinks of you? When has that ever stopped you from doing what you wanted?” Riku clenched his fists.

“Believe it or not, Riku, there are things in this world of which you are unaware,” Sephiroth’s tone became low and dangerous. “We are on the verge of war. There are some who criticize my policies and think they would do a better job handling this crisis. The major families in this city are constantly looking for ways to undermine us and grab power, and if we are distracted by infighting, then all of Nomura is vulnerable. The Alexandrian rulers are no fools. It is rumored their queen has spies throughout our city searching for weaknesses they can use against us. Loss of reputation, however minor it might seem to _you,_ could have lasting consequences.”

Riku fell silent. His heart pounded in rage and his scowl twisted.

“In order to rule successfully, you need the respect of those you govern, especially the respect of the city’s noble families. This boy is common, your close involvement with him is inappropriate, and people are beginning to notice.” Sephiroth paused to let his words take hold, and he looked over his nephew coolly.

“I do not mean to be unkind,” he continued, almost gently. “But you must discontinue your association with him.”

“I refuse.”

“I try to be sympathetic, Riku, but my patience grows thin,” he warned.

“I understand your concerns, Uncle, but I believe your fears are unfounded. Sora is my friend. I will not give him up over some supposed plot against you. Not when I care for him so deeply.”

“I know it is difficult for you—”

“I _refuse_.”

“That is enough. I have offered you an explanation for my decision out of courtesy, yet you insist on being obstinate. This level of outright disrespect will not be tolerated.”

“A gentleman stands by what he believes in. You taught me that,” Riku dared.

“A gentleman does not throw his life away over a fanciful whim.”

“Yet I should throw it away if the whim is yours?”

“I said that is _enough_!” Sephiroth thundered. He stood from his seat and let the power of his presence fill the room, his eyes flashing. “I forbid you from seeing this boy. In addition, you are not permitted to leave the estate until you have proven that you know how to conduct yourself appropriately. Do you understand? My word is final.”

Riku met his uncle’s glare, chest heaving and eyes stinging. He looked away bitterly.

“If I discover that you have disobeyed me, there will be consequences.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Now,” he said, straightening his suit jacket, “seeing as you have misplaced your pocket watch, dinner is in half an hour. I expect you to attend.”

With that, Sephiroth turned and swept out of the room like a rolling thundercloud. Riku was left in his wake, bereft and shaking with anger and helplessness. He tried to catch his breath in heavy, silent gasps and dug the palms of his hands into his eyes.

He sat like that for a moment until he was startled by a hesitant knock at the door. He jerked in surprise to find Kairi clutching the doorway.

“A-are you alright?” she asked timidly.

“I’m fine,” he choked. Which was very obviously a lie.

She entered the room and gave him a look of deep concern. She wanted to give him a hug, but she was sure he wouldn’t like that at all, so instead she took a seat on the couch Lord Sephiroth had just left.

“I’m so sorry. I heard everything,” she admitted. Every line of her posture was an expression of her sympathy.

Riku gave a shuddering sigh and crumbled just a little in his armchair. “I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I can’t give Sora up. I just can’t.”

“I know,” Kairi said soothingly.

“But how can I go against my uncle? Who knows what he might do to me—or to Sora, even! He could ruin _everything_ if he wanted to.”

“Maybe you can change his mind. Make him see how important Sora is to you.”

“You think it can be done? My uncle is a stubborn man.”

“But he’s not unreasonable.” Kairi leaned forward in her seat. Her gray eyes were kind, full of compassion and firm resolve. “There must be something we can do, and if there is, we’ll figure it out together. You’re not alone, Riku.”

Riku blinked up at her in surprise. Then he looked away, embarrassed by his emotion.

“Thank you,” he managed.

Kairi blushed at his sincerity and fiddled with the hem of her apron. They were quiet for a moment, each absorbed with their own thoughts. Just as the silence was verging on uncomfortable, Kairi looked to her side and found the book Lord Sephiroth had been looking through when Riku had entered. She flipped through the pages and found a few interesting pictures and diagrams.

“This looks like a pretty dense book.” She offered him a smile and a change of subject to try dulling the pain of the true problem at hand. It was a sympathetic gesture.

“Master Eraqus wants me to read chapters four though seven by tomorrow. I haven’t even started yet,” Riku sighed.

“What’s it about?”

“It’s basically a textbook explaining how mages choose their specialties.”

“I thought mages just kind of _know_ what their specialty is, even before they start to really learn magic. Like it’s just part of you already.”

A small smile curled the end of Riku’s lips. “Do you know much about magic?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say _that_ ,” said Kairi, cheeks flushed. “I just—I mean, I’ve looked up some information about it before. Just general research. I don’t know anything about it at all, really.”

“Was there anything specific you were researching?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Well, if you _must_ know, I was…curious. Because I thought I might…I mean. I just thought there was something…I don’t know.” Kairi was blushing furiously now as she stared at the book on her lap. “I was just curious.”

Riku brightened slightly with interest. The traces of his heartache were easy to push aside in the face of his friend’s situation. Her problem was much easier to address than his, at the moment.

“You think you might have magic,” he clarified.

“No,” Kairi insisted. “Not anymore, at least. I mean, there was just something unusual I would feel sometimes, so I thought it _could_ be magic. But I looked in all the books I could find and it didn’t sound like what happened to me. So. It’s not magic. It’s probably nothing, really. But I thought it might be, so I ended up reading some books. That’s all.” She said it like a confession.

“What made you think it was magic?”

Kairi pursed her lips, embarrassed to be talking about this with a genuine mage. But she figured if she and Riku were really going to be friends, she might as well tell him about her Weird Feeling-Things Power, as Sora had officially dubbed it. So she told him about her perceptive intuition and the energy she felt from people. It was difficult to put into words, and Kairi felt quite silly describing it to him.

Instead of mocking her peculiar experiences, however, Riku listened attentively. Once she had finished, he thought for a moment, then sprung from his armchair to examine his wall of bookshelves. After a short search, he pulled out two books and returned to his seat.

“This is what you need, I think,” said Riku. “They talk about empathy magic, which sounds like what you’re describing. Empathy magic is rather rare, so I’m not surprised your search didn’t produce results.”

Kairi was silent as she looked at the books in front of her, face blank. She didn’t move to touch them, almost as if she were unsure what they were for.

“You can borrow them if you want,” Riku added when she made no response.

Kairi blinked at him, bewildered. “Can I really?” She felt nearly breathless.

“I wouldn’t offer them otherwise.”

Now that Kairi was faced with the possibility of the truth, she was a bit frightened. If these books proved once and for all that her experiences _were_ magical… what did that mean for her? For her future? Things were much easier when it was all pure speculation.

“I can put them back if you don’t want them,” said Riku, frowning at her indecision.

“No!” Kairi snatched up the books and gripped them to her chest. “I want them. Thank you.”

“I can help tutor you. I may not know the details of empathy magic, but I can teach you basics and you’re welcome to use my library.”

“You’d really do that for me?”

“Sure. Master Eraqus says teaching is the best way to learn, so it can help me study for my entrance exams. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to hear I’m being social. If Master Eraqus approves, then my uncle is less likely to object. It’ll be a legitimate pastime. And maybe…” An idea occurred to him suddenly, and Riku’s eyes lit up. “Maybe we could find a way to involve Sora somehow.”

“What, you’re gonna give him lessons, too?”

“Well—I don’t know exactly. But there must be some way to involve him, right?”

“I don’t see why not,” said Kairi, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “It’s alright for _me_ to spend time with Sora, after all. I’m sure we can come up with some excuse as to why he’s there, just in case anyone asks.”

“It would still be going against my uncle’s orders, though.” Riku’s frown was back.

“It gives you some options. An excuse, at the very least. We can still figure out some better plan to make Lord Sephiroth change his mind about Sora.”

Riku gave a short, wry laugh. “I guess we’ll see whether or not it’s possible to get him to change his mind for once.” He didn’t seem optimistic.

“Hey now, don’t be like that,” Kairi scolded. “It might work. I mean—it’s _Sora_. He does the impossible all the time!”

“That is true.” He gave a small smile, and Kairi returned it. Suddenly the situation didn’t seem so hopeless after all.

“Thank you for helping me,” he said after a moment.  

“Oh, I should be thanking _you_ , Mr. Tutor.” Then she faltered. “Of course, this is all assuming that I actually _have_ empathy magic. I mean, if I don’t…”

“Kairi, if it turns out that you aren’t magical in some way, I will be extremely surprised,” Riku said with sincere kindness.

Kairi’s cheeks flushed, but her smile was wide. “Well, then. I guess I’d better get reading!” She gathered the books and stood from her chair, buzzing with excitement. Then she paused.

“And you’d better get ready for dinner,” she added soberly. “It’s a quarter ‘til, you know.”

Riku sighed and gave her a nod as she slipped out the door.

* * *

Namine lit another oil lamp as the last lingering daylight faded from the long windows of the library. Her secluded table was scattered with piles of books which she flipped through with urgency, scribbling frenzied notes in her notebook. She had a variety of ideas and new terms and cities to research, and she really felt she’d stumbled onto something interesting.

By all accounts, it was possible Xehanort had been responsible for the destruction of an increasing list of places, and Namine was trying to trace his path back and discover where he had come from. If she knew more about Xehanort’s history, she hoped she could find the source of his power and therefore a way to counteract it.

She was so absorbed with pursuing a new lead that she failed to notice a figure approaching. Had she been more alert, Namine would have seen a man with gnarled posture emerging from the depths of the dark library hall, golden eyes bright. Instead, she was startled by a deep voice at her shoulder.

“What an interesting hobby you have, my dear. I can’t imagine most staff members would spend their free time studying geography.”

Namine whirled around in her seat to find Xehanort before her. He smiled, and the angle of the expression was knowing and sinister.

“Master Xehanort,” she said, stiffly. She hoped he had missed the waver in her voice, but the glint in his eyes told her otherwise. She stood and gave a short curtsey.

Xehanort leaned over her shoulder to look at the spread of books and papers on the table. Heart pounding, Namine rushed to close the books and tidy her mess. Her mind raced to think of some excuse she could use to explain what she was doing there. She hadn’t had any contact with Xehanort before this—she had made a point to avoid him as much as possible, in fact. By keeping away from him, Namine had hoped to fly under the radar more efficiently. Now, however, she was regretting her tactics. If she had gotten to know him more on her own terms, she might have been able to read him better, or at least have some idea what to expect from him. But it was too late now. And Namine was vulnerable. How could she manage to explain herself? What would he believe?

“Now now. No need to fuss. As far as I know, there is nothing criminal about improving one’s knowledge. I am sure the Master of the house would not mind in the slightest” said Xehanort. “But just to be safe, how about we keep this little research undertaking to ourselves, hm?”

Namine tried to force her erratic pulse to steady. She wasn’t very successful.

Xehanort picked up an open book and flipped through the pages. “Ah, Damcyan,” he said, reading. “A remarkable place. Such a shame what happened to it.” He glanced back at her. “Don’t you agree?”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been there,” she said lightly to mask her panic. She edged herself to stand front of the table in an effort to block more of the books from view.

“No? Well, I hope you were not planning a trip there. The Damcyan civil war some years back has reduced the place to rubble. As far as I know, newer editions of maps omit it entirely. But worry not,” he added with a glance at Namine’s tight expression. “There are always more cities to visit, more corners of the world to explore.”

He paused to study her. Namine smoothed her expression into something neutral, but Xehanort’s sharp golden eyes seemed to pierce into her with calculating intensity.

“Tell me, how long have you been working here in the manor?” he asked.

“A-about four years, Sir,” she said, throat tight.

“Four years,” he nodded thoughtfully. “A decent amount of time. Have you enjoyed working here? Well, clearly not much, I suppose, considering the trip you’re planning,” he grinned.

Namine gave a hesitant smile. “I’ve enjoyed my time here. The work is rewarding, if challenging, and my coworkers are never without surprises.”

“Excellent to hear. And how are you adjusting to the city?”

“Sir?”

“The city. Nomura can be quite a change compared to other places on the continent. Not that Alexandria is so vastly dissimilar, but I know there is still quite a lot to get used to here.”

Namine’s heart skipped a beat as her blood turned cold with fear.

“I—I’m afraid I do not know what you mean. I’m not—I’ve never been to Alexandria.”

Xehanort’s polite smile widened into something malicious. “Is Lady Garnet aware that you are a terrible liar? I really would have expected better from one of her notorious spies.”

Namine’s stomach dropped. Her cover was blown. She must have slipped up somehow, made another mistake like the one that led to Kairi’s discovery of her identity. Maybe someone had seen her snooping around, maybe Xehanort had simply known all along. But none of that mattered now. She had to get out of there, any way possible.

In an instant, Namine snatched up her notebook, then shoved the work table it to its side as a barrier between them. The books tumbled to the floor in a scattered mess— an effective, if not entirely perfect, way to mask what she’d been researching. She turned and sprinted down the hall, light and swift as a deer, taking sharp turns through the rows of bookshelves as she weaved her way through the maze of the library.

She could not hear any sign of Xehanort behind her, but that did not mean he was not following.

As she ran, the darkness around her quivered. Suddenly, shadowed arms rose up from the floor, grasping for her with clawed hands. Namine darted out of their reach before they could catch her.

Her memory powers were of little use in a chase, but that did not mean Namine was unprepared. She was a member of Lady Garnet’s prestigious Special Operatives force, after all.

Looking around, she found another table and chair against the wall under an unlit oil lamp. Perfect. She searched the hidden pockets of her maid’s uniform as she ran towards it. She had her notebook, her pencil, a roll of twine, extra socks, and—there! Matches.

Namine knocked the chair over and gave a quick, merciless stomp to break away one of the thin stretchers attached between the chair’s legs. Once she had it free, she tore off a length of cloth from her apron and wound it around the broken piece of the chair.

Footsteps echoed through the library, calm and menacing.

“My dear, this is all quite unnecessary, I assure you.” Xehanort’s deep voice rumbled from the darkness. “I think the two of us ought to sit down and have a little talk. There is much to discuss.”

Namine’s heart was pounding in her chest and her breath was ragged from running, but she did not let that slow her in the slightest. She broke off a bit of the twine with her teeth and used it to tie the cloth to the wood. Next, she snatched the oil lamp from its holder on the wall, removed the fuel container, and poured the lighting fluid over the cloth wrapping. When the cloth was sufficiently soaked, she plugged the container with another strip of cloth torn from her now-tattered apron and stowed away it in her pocket.

“There’s quite a bit I would like to learn from you,” Xehanort continued. “In fact, I think you can help me _immensely_.”

There was a strange, quiet scraping noise, like claws against the marble floor. The darkness at the end of the long row of bookshelves where Namine stood turned an unnatural, inky black. The soft scraping drew nearer. Then large, shadowed beasts appeared around the corner. Namine looked up from her hurried work and saw glowing golden eyes set in monstrous faces. They rushed toward her.

Her time was up.

Namine lit a match and brought her torch to life. The monsters before her hissed and slowed their attack. She thrust the torch at them, and the beasts drew to a halt. In the dark of their faces, they seemed to be baring their teeth in canine snouts, but they made no sound. Their silence was jarring. Namine backed away from them slowly along the wall. With every step she took away, the shadow monsters crept forward.

She looked around her, desperate for an escape. But all she saw was darkness.

Namine turned back to find the monsters had suddenly grown in number and size. Several closest to her were now nearly as tall as the bookshelves they stood beside. She thought back to what Sora had told her about his most recent encounter with the shadow monsters, how they had become giants when confronted with fire. But Namine did not have any magic dagger to save her—this firelight was her only weapon.

Her throat went dry. There was nothing to do but run.

Torch held high above her head, she dashed down the corridor between the wall and the end of the shelves. Her soft maid’s shoes were quiet as she sprinted through the library. The monsters, too, were nearly silent in their pursuit.

“If you _insist_ on running, then we can always do this the hard way.” The echoes of Xehanort’s voice made it seem as if he were everywhere at once, surrounding her on all sides. Maybe he was.

Just then, a huge shadow beast leapt at her from a row of bookshelves as she passed. She shrieked as it knocked her to the floor and pinned her down. She slashed her torch at the monster desperately as its claws stabbed into her shoulders. The flames sizzled the creature’s snout and caused its mouth to dissolve away into wisps of pale smoke. Namine thrust the fire fully into its face with all her might, and the shadow hissed and receded into formless darkness around her.

Namine scrambled back to her feet and was off running again before the rest of the approaching beasts could catch her, too. Her shoulders seared where the claws had stabbed her and she could feel blood dampening her clothes, but she had no time to think about it.

The monsters were gaining on her. She’d be finished unless she found a way to escape the library.

The corridor ahead of her was at an end, so she turned down a row of bookshelves, waving her torch to cast away any shadows lurking there. The firelight illuminated the book spines around her, and Namine realized this was an area of the library she’d explored earlier that day. An idea struck her as she remembered this section more clearly. Perhaps she had a chance to get out of there after all. She raced through the shelves with renewed vigor.

And then she saw it—a gleam of pale moonlight through a tall glass window just ahead. She pulled out the bottle of lighter fluid from her pocket as she reached the window, and poured the remaining contents around herself in a  wide arc. She could see the hoard of shadow monsters lunging for her, but she touched her torch to the oil and it burst into flames just as the monsters arrived. Fire rose up, and the shadows shriveled back.

Namine looked at her success for a moment as she caught her breath, panting hard. 

Footsteps echoed through the hall, and a figure emerged from the depths. Xehanort’s golden eyes caught hers.

Namine brought up one hand before her and her fingers wove a quick, intricate pattern. The air around her shimmered slightly at her concentration.

But her hand froze abruptly, and Namine jerked in pain.

“Did you really expect to manipulate me so easily?” Xehanort all but purred. “Perhaps you think too little of yourself, my dear, but believe me when I say that you are not so easily forgettable.” He stepped closer, and the shadow beasts parted around him. His long coat fluttered in a wind that did not exist and his posture straightened. He clasped his arms behind his back and smiled.

“Let’s stop all this nonsense now. Our goals are really not so different as you might think. You want to be part of something greater, don’t you? You want to help people and bring about real change in the world.”

Namine struggled, but remained frozen with her hand outstretched as he came to stand before her. The angles of his face were sharpened by the flickering line of flames between them. He seemed taller than was possible and his edges were blurred as if there were no true distinction between where he ended and the darkness around them began. His eyes reflected the firelight as he gazed down on her.

“At least, that’s what you want others to believe. But that’s not really why you’re doing all this, is it?” Xehanort’s voice was a low reverberation in her ear. “No. You’re not quite so idealistic as all that. You work and fight so hard only for recognition. You’re tired of being brushed aside. Tired of being looked over for promotions and praise in favor of those who are merely louder and more popular, but who lack your brilliance. You want to show everyone how powerful you can be. How impressive your unique talents are.”

Namine tried to shrink back from his gaze, but it was no use. His words were like smoky tendrils infiltrating the depths of her mind.

“There’s no need to deny it. I can see it all right here in your mind.” Unbidden, painful memories played out before her— her lonely childhood, her frustrating years at the University, her unappreciated professional life.

“Poor child,” Xehanort whispered. “Least cherished by those around her. Least noticed by those she admires. But I believe you are _truly_ something special. I really do.”

Namine’s breath caught in her throat as tears welled up in her eyes. The oil on the floor was nearly gone and the barrier of fire was dwindling to nothing. The torch dropped from her hands to land beside the empty fuel container on the floor. The darkness was creeping in from all sides.

“I can help you get what you want. You can show the world the incredible things you are capable of. And the greatest part is, you don’t need to do anything at all. The only thing I need from you…is your surrender.”

Namine’s eyes slipped closed, and a tear rolled down her pale cheek. She sucked in a trembling breath.

Her eyes flew open. She blew air from her lungs forcefully and gathered the last of her strength. Her hand tensed in a firm grip, taught with energy. Then, slowly, deliberately, her fingers traced out a memory-erasing spell.

Xehanort sneered at her efforts. But before he could say anything more, he stopped short, eyes widening just a fraction.

Namine took the connection Xehanort had created between their minds and used it to force her way through to him. There were impossibly dense barriers around his mind, but Namine didn’t need much. All she had to do was erase the image of her face from his memories. There wasn’t much she needed to tamper with—she’d had so little contact with him, after all. Just this night.

She took every ounce of power she had and threw it at Xehanort. She grasped at the memories of herself, so recent that the barriers protecting the depths of his mind were ineffective, and hacked away viciously at her image until there was nothing.

Xehanort stumbled back, clutching his head. The mind was a complex and nuanced thing, and she preferred to bend it in ways that would be unfelt and unnoticed. But she did not have time to manipulate anything subtle now. He would remember that something had happened, that there had been a confrontation. But he wouldn’t remember who it was with.

Namine snatched the empty fuel container off the floor and spun around to throw it at the window behind her. The metal container smashed through the glass, and shards rained down over them. She hoisted herself up into the window, hissing as broken glass sliced her hands, and without a moment’s hesitation, she jumped. The library was on the ground floor, but still the landing was hard, and Namine crashed to the lawn below. With a practiced roll, however, she was back on her feet and racing away from the manor.

When she reached the gap in the iron fence, she paused and looked back. Breathing hard, but more determined than ever, she rose her arms and began the careful, delicate process of removing the memories she’d implanted in the minds of the manor’s employees. After a tense minute, she was finished. None of the servants would remember the clumsy blonde maid who had always kept to herself.

Kairi would remember her, though. Namine hadn’t tampered with those real memories.

With that, she slipped through the fence and made her way swiftly down cobblestone streets. There was only one place she could think of where she would be safe from Xehanort’s shadows now. So she boarded a train and headed to a particular delivery shop in the western district.

When Sora opened his door to find her, he wasn’t surprised so much as disappointed. If she had cared about that kind of thing, Namine might have been offended, and she told him so.

“It’s just…I was expecting Riku,” Sora explained. “He was supposed to be here.”

Luckily for Namine, though, there was a bed already made up on the floor, and she sunk into it gratefully as she told Sora and Roxas about her harrowing escape. Sora helped tend to the wounds on her shoulders and tried to pretend he wasn’t more concerned with Riku’s absence.

* * *

The next morning was rough for everyone. Namine had not slept well on the floor-bed, Roxas had been accidentally kicked a few times during the night by Sora, and Sora was still trying not to worry about why Riku hadn’t been there.

But that morning was particularly rough for Cloud. He had spent the previous day stressed and frantic, jumping whenever someone entered the shop. He was definitely not expecting anyone in particular, though. At least, that’s what he would say when asked. And if he was able to believe that himself, it would keep him from being disappointed when no one in particular showed up the entire day. Well, not that he _was_ disappointed. Of course not.

But disappointed or not, Cloud had gone to bed that night completely spent of energy.

By morning, Cloud had convinced himself that he’d gotten worked up over nothing. Because it _was_ nothing, obviously. There was really no reason for anyone in particular to come by the shop. Even if Sora had told him that someone had stopped by a few days ago, that didn’t mean that person would ever come by again.

As he got dressed, he decided to forego the nicer clothes he’d worn yesterday and put on his regular dark shirt and trousers, faded and covered in cat hair though they were. He scowled at the boots he’d polished the previous morning and felt ridiculous. The earring was left on his dresser.

Sora was cautious around him as they went about their morning tasks. He sent surreptitious looks Cloud’s way while he swept the office and spoke in the soft voice used when approaching potentially dangerous animals. Cloud couldn’t even blame him.

But Cloud didn’t have the energy to apologize for his behavior at the moment. He could barely muster a response when Sora mentioned a guest staying in Sora’s apartment for some undetermined amount of time.

Finally, Sora and his cat left for deliveries and Cloud slumped in his chair.

Newspapers still littered his desk, and for a moment he stared listlessly at the grainy photos they displayed. He felt like a complete fool. Even after all this time, one mention of Squall Leonhart still had him caught up in a whirl of emotions. Cloud didn’t even know how he felt about any of this anymore. Maybe he just felt tired.

He gathered up the newspapers and stuffed them all in the trash bin. After a moment of staring at the trash bin, he moved the bin away into the kitchenette. He gave a sigh.

There was nothing to do but get on with his life, as he’d been trying to do for years now. He had work to do after all. So Cloud went back to his desk and pulled out some paperwork he needed to get through, determined to put this mess behind him once and for all.

But then the door opened.

He looked up from his work and stopped short.

“Hello Cloud,” said Squall Leonhart, standing in the doorway of the delivery shop looking like some kind of regal conqueror, which Cloud supposed was not far off these days.

“Squall,” Cloud heard himself say. He was frozen in his chair, pen poised to sign a stack of mundane order forms.

The morning had started out rough. The day only seemed to be getting worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, it's been a while. Let me know what you think?


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